To Catch A Falling Star
by fyerigurl
Summary: When you're a Seigaku girl team regular, tennis comes first. And no male regular, no matter how sexy, can take that away from you. OC team. RyoSaku. CH27: Miracle, Broken! Chiharu plays her heart out in Singles One. "What happens when being a miracle isn't enough?"
1. All girl?

**Disclaimer:** You guessed it. I don't own Prince of Tennis.

**A/N: Please Read: **Most people are skeptical of OC fics, especially OC girl team fics. This is one of the reasons I took the challenge of writing one. In many cases, OCs become Mary Sues, or worse, carbon copies of the original characters. In many other cases, the characters are OOC and the romance is unbelievable, or that it takes up the whole story and forgets the main essence of Prince of Tennis-tennis.

**If first impressions cause you to believe my story is one of those many cases, I still encourage you to read to chapter 8. **If after that, you still think this story is not quite your cup of tea, then you may stop reading knowing that you have given it a fair chance.

This chapter is really short and mainly serves as a catalyst.

To Catch A Falling Star-Chapter One: An All-Girl Team?

Meet Sayaka.

* * *

"What the hell!"

Momoshiro's racket clattered onto the court. But his wouldn't have been only one if the others hadn't been holding theirs so tightly.

He was unaware that he'd dropped the racket. The shock was too much.

Of course, the others had their own ways of showing their surprise. Inui pushed his glasses up his nose. The Golden Pair were chatting to each other, but their voices suddenly faded as they looked around in confusion. Kawamura mouthed his questions; no sound came from his lips. Even Fuji opened his eyes.

"What…what is going on?" Kaidoh said.

Ryoma twisted his cap around his head. "The way I see it, our team is getting cut."

"Eh?" Kikumaru cried, clinging on Ryoma in panic. "They can't do that!"

"Ite…" Ryoma muttered. "Kikumaru-senpai, you're choking me."

"What are we going to do?" he cried, ignoring Ryoma.

"Don't panic…" Oishi attempted to reassure them, though he himself looked worried. "I'm sure there's a logical reason…"

Their coach walked towards them, smiling at their confusion. "It's a sight, isn't it?" she said heartily. "The school wants me to coach an all-girl team."

"WHAT?"

Well, that explained all the girls running around on _their _tennis courts. "But, Ryuzaki-sensei!" Oishi said. "Don't the girls have their own tennis club, with their own courts? Couldn't they—"

Tezuka's deep voice resonated from behind them. "They have no experience in competing in tournaments." They turned to see their captain join them, his arms crossed in their usual fashion. He didn't seem the least bit surprised. Of course, their captain hardly was the one to show emotion. "That's why they need to have supervision."

"They've been doing pretty well so far!" Momoshiro argued. "Why, suddenly—"

"There's going to be an all-girl tennis tournament, just like ours." Coach Ryuzaki explained. "Two doubles, three singles, and here's the clincher. Two mixed doubles."

"Mixed?" Oishi echoed. "As in…"

She nodded. "Yep. As in boy-girl, boy-girl. So I'm combining the teams, and Tezuka will be captain of both. I've already talked it over with him."

"But, the space!" Momoshiro cried. "We can't possibly _share_…"

"Only the girl regulars will be allowed on our courts." Tezuka said. Before any of them could say anything else, he told them to go with the usual training in that commanding tone that forbade any argument. Momoshiro only sighed and mumbled his objections to himself and he walked away.

"Inui." he suddenly said as they were departing. The captain tossed a black sports bag towards him. The team trainer unzipped it to find a Seigaku team jersey inside. "But, this is—" he started.

"You're no longer our team trainer," Tezuka said. "Welcome back."

Coach Ryuzaki smiled at the baffled Inui. '_For someone who calculates everything… he didn't realize that there were two openings for regulars? Baka…_' "The rest of you, don't just stand there! For starters, you can run 20 laps!"

"Wait a minute," Momoshiro peered out at the girls. "Is that _Sayaka_? Sayaka, is that _you_?"

One of the girls lifted her head from where she was performing a split on the ground. "Hello, Take-nii-san."

Everyone gaped, but their surprise couldn't hold a candle to the astonished expression on Momoshiro's face. If he had picked up his racket, he would've dropped it again.

"What the hell!" he said again. "You're on the gymnastics team!"

She got up from her position and shook out her short, black hair. "It got cut." she said simply.

"You don't play tennis!"

"That's where you're wrong. I started three years ago."

"Holy…" Momoshiro reeled.

"If you must know, I've been stealing your rackets since I was eight. But you should have known I've been playing, or you haven't even the time to keep in touch with your twin?"

Gasps were heard from all around the court.

"Did you know Momo had a sister?" Kawamura said.

Fuji shook his head. "No, I had no idea."

"Heh, she's kinda cute." Kikumaru whispered to Ryoma. "Kawaii."

Momoshiro ignored them. "I've been busy!" he said defensively.

She rolled her eyes. "Right. I'm your _twin_. We go to the same school. We_ live_ in the same _house_. Is it that hard to acknowledge my existence?"

He snapped. "Hey, it's not like I'm expected to ask every detail of your life!"

"Yeah, well you should at least _care!_" she exploded.

"Why, you…"

The regulars watched as the two siblings argued. "I can't believe they're siblings and not something like sworn enemies..." Oishi commented.

Fuji smiled. "Heh… It's nice to be able to argue with a sibling, though."

"Eh? Does Fuji argue with Yuuta-kun then?" Kawamura asked.

"No, but I like watching him and my sister argue…"

"I should have known." he muttered.

"Oishi!" Kikumaru cried. "Shouldn't we stop them?" He gestured frantically to the siblings.

Oishi turned and nearly had a heart attack. Momoshiro was now holding his sister by the scruff of her shirt, and she was threatening to bite his hand clean off. "Hey, hey!" he said, running forward to pull them apart. "Violence isn't the answer here!" With Eiji's help, he managed to place a few meters between the pair.

"Calm down, both of you!" Eiji was crying as he restrained Momoshiro (with great difficulty).

"Fsssh… pitiful." Kaidoh slung his racket over his shoulder and began walking away.

"What did you say!" Momo switched targets. "Want to say that to my face, Mamushi?"

"Shut up! Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"Bring it on, Viper!"

"Don't ignore me, idiot brother!"

"SILENCE!"

Their captain had spoken. Suddenly, the court was quiet. Tezuka turned to the cluster of regulars. "Everyone, 20 laps!"

"Does he mean me?" Sayaka asked, pointing to herself.

"Momoshiro Sayaka!" His deep voice practically made the courts vibrate.

"H-hai!"

"Since you are not officially part of the tennis club yet, I will excuse your behavior for today." His eyeglasses flashed. The rest of the regulars scurried off before he could start on them.

"I apologize!" she said with a bow. '_I can see why nii-san and the others respect him so much. He feels more than just a year older…_'

A girl with hot pink hair smiled at her. "I think the captain just hinted that you'll make the team..." She turned to the girl beside her. "Chiharu-senpai, aren't you jealous?"

Ryuzaki smiled as she watched the scene before her eyes. "Tezuka will be a fine captain for both the teams." she murmured aloud. "Maybe our girl team will be able to take a couple of trophies this year too..."

* * *

A review would be nice. Let me know what you think.

Reader, at least read on to chapter 8, as mentioned in the Author's Note above.

Note: I keep imagining the Seigaku regulars as high schoolers, so some scenes may be for the... more mature, shall we say. (Because none of them look like they're in middle school!) I'm writing this as if they are in high school, almost like a semi-AU.


	2. Signups

**Disclaimer:** I wish, but I don't own Prince of Tennis.

To all those people who are pushing for a RyomaXSakuno fic, guess what? You got your wish.

And all the regulars/people are in high school. Just make a note of that.

To Catch A Falling Star-Chapter Two: Signups

* * *

"Hey, look at this!"

"No way, the female tennis team is asking for signups?"

"Heh, everyone on it must suck if they're still asking for signups so late in the year! And especially with the new decision…"

"Female tennis tournaments? The committee must be crazy!"

"You think, if everyone sucks, maybe I have a chance?"

"I'm signing up!"

Ryuzaki Sakuno managed to squeeze herself through the crowd of people that appeared magically. A signup sheet and an announcement had been pinned to the bulletin board, for those who didn't attend the extra practice session yesterday. She had gone; it was a requirement for all club members.

It was only 7:30 am, yet the signup sheet already had at least ten names. She didn't recognize any of them. Apparently none of her fellow freshmen students signed up.

"Sakuno, Sakuno!" someone squealed. A pair of arms enveloped her. "What are you doing?"

"Ah… Tomo-chan…"

Tomoka peered at the board. "An all-girl tennis team with mixed doubles?" she exclaimed in excitement. "Sakuno, just think, if we get on, we'll be able to play with Ryoma-sama! Are you signing up?"

"Ah… yes," She smiled slightly. "All the members of the girl's tennis club are required to. I won't be able to become a regular, but it's an honor to be part of the competition."

Her friend let out an exasperated sigh. "If I didn't have to look after my bratty brothers, I'd be able to join. Non-members can play too, right?"

"Yup, anyone can join." Sakuno said.

Tomoka fished in her bag for a pen and scrawled her name on the sheet. "Well, I'll sign up first, and see if I can squeeze the time out later," She grinned and grabbed Sakuno's hand, "C'mon, we'll be late for homeroom."

"Tomo-chan, we still have half an hour…" Sakuno protested weakly as her friend dragged her away.

* * *

Izumi let her eyes linger on the sheet for a moment. Should she, or shouldn't she? Exhaling, she forced herself to walk away. She _did _have until lunchtime to sign up. It was dangerously tempting, but she hadn't played tennis in a long time, and she didn't want to make a fool of herself out on the courts. '_I'll cross that bridge when I come to it._'

* * *

Sayaka signed her name with a big flourish. She would finally get to show off all those years of tennis practice. Her thoughts brought a smile to her face.

"Sayaka-chan?"

"Hey," She turned to see her gymnastics team captain. "'sup?"

"I'm sorry about our team," the captain said, slightly uncomfortably. "The school cut our funding, so…"

"'s ok. Gymnastics weren't my only thing anyways."

"You're floor routine was amazing and you weren't shabby at the trampoline either," the captain informed her. "You could've gone places with those skills."

"Maybe I still can."

"I beg your pardon?"

Sayaka grinned at the puzzled expression on her captain's face. "You haven't seen Kikumaru play tennis, have you?"

* * *

"Morioka Izumi?"

She got up and walked to the front of the classroom, accepting her test papers.

"You did very well. One of the top three in the grade." the teacher said for the whole class to hear. "Keep your grades up and you'll get into a great school." He gave her a sympathetic smile.

Her insides were coiled with anger but she still managed a small bow and a half-hearted "thank you". She didn't want him to pity her. So she lost first place to Tezuka again. Who cares?

Kikumaru craned his neck to get a look at her papers when she sat back down, but she shoved them in her desk before he could see.

"Morioka-chan," he whined. "Please let me see!"

"No." she replied shortly.

"Please! I'll show you mine."

"No deal."

Fuji sat down after he had gotten his papers. The girl behind him peeked over his shoulder and gasped in surprise. "Fuji-san! You beat Morioka by 0.5 points!" she exclaimed so loudly that the whole class turned around to stare. Whispers immediately filled the room.

"No way… Morioka in 3rd place?"

"She never dropped below 2nd before..."

"I wonder what happened…"

Izumi hated the feeling of eyes upon her. For an instant, she wondered how that girl knew her grade, but then decided it didn't matter. She didn't want them talking about her. She didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. She just wanted them to leave her alone. She glared at her desk, not looking at any of them.

"It was just luck." Fuji said, smiling. He turned to look at her. "I'm sure you'll beat me next time, Morioka-san."

"I don't need your sympathy." she said coldly, still staring at her desk.

"That's so mean, nya," Kikumaru commented. "Fuji was just trying to be nice. You don't have to get so upset."

"What do you know about it?" she exploded, her eyes flashing.

Eiji's already huge eyes widened even more in surprise. The whole class was silent; shocked at her sudden outburst. They knew her as the silent, creepy one. Izumi took a second to register what she had done. She closed her eyes, let out a breath, and abruptly stood up. "Sensei, I'm going to the bathroom." Without waiting for an answer, she strode out the door, feeling everyone's eyes follow her.

"Ah…" Even the teacher was speechless. "Ok…"

When she was standing in front of the mirror, Izumi let the tears come. With every blink, another drop traced its way down her cheek. She looked into the mirror and saw more than just sadness or resentment in her eyes. It was a feeling that she couldn't describe.

'_Why do I push myself so hard? What am I searching for? What is it I want so much, it's beginning to hurt?_' Her fingers reached for the girl in the mirror and met cold glass. She wasn't a genius; she only excelled in school because she put twice as much effort on it. Maybe that's why she always felt so down when she lost 1st place to Tezuka. It felt like everything was in vain.

Her skin was so pale; bleached by hours of studying before a computer screen. The paleness made her black eyes seem all the more shadowy, and enhanced the dark spots under her eyes caused from sleepless nights. No wonder they thought she was creepy. Maybe… it was time for a change.

Her breathing gradually steadied; no more tears were shed. Quickly, she rinsed her face, so no one would guess that the water there came from her eyes. With the water left on her hands, she smoothed her bangs down, then ran them through her long dark hair. Suddenly, she felt a soft nudge at her shoulder.

"Morioka-chan?" Kikumaru poked her. "Are you alright?"

She whirled around, hair swishing around her waist. "You shouldn't be in here." It was just like him to wander into the girl's bathroom. '_Hasn't he ever heard of privacy?_'

"I know, I know. But I just wanted to make sure you were ok." His face was so innocent, so earnest.

"I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine." he said, continuing to poke her shoulder, as if checking if she was one of the pod people in _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." She slapped his hand away. His reflexes were good; he pulled his hand away before she could hit it.

"Is it because Fuji beat you at the test?"

"No."

"It is, isn't it? You're disappointed."

She lifted her eyes to his. "You don't understand."

"I don't, nya. My grades are low 80s, so how can I understand?" He laughed and winked. "People like you and Tezuka and Fuji… you're just too smart for me."

"Evidently." she said coldly, and walked away. Before she had gotten two steps, he grasped her wrist.

She turned and gave him the sharpest glare she could muster. She hated people like him. Always being so kind, involving themselves in everybody's problems, thinking they were _helping _people… She hated them. She hated people like that.

No, she didn't really hate them. She hated herself.

She needed them. She _wanted_ them to help her. She wanted to feel their kindness light up her darkened soul. She wanted to be supported by them, to have someone to cling to.

And for that, she hated herself.

It was weakness, she decided. Ever since she was a small child, Izumi had rejected help, rejected support. She never turned to others for anything. She had always stood on her own two feet. If she wanted something done, she'd always do it herself.

The gaze in her onyx eyes was so harsh it actually made Kikumaru take a step back, letting go of her wrist. "Morioka-chan… tell me what's wrong. Please? I can help."

"You can't."

"I can try."

"That'll just make it worse."

"Please?" He was so damn persistent.

She sighed, touching her wrist slightly with her other hand. It was still warm from where his hand had held on to it. "Eiji… we've been in the same class for more than three years. You know me better than anyone. And you should know that there are some things about me that no one should ever find out."

"What's really wrong?"

"I'm just tired…" she said, closing her eyes. "I'm tired of working so hard and always an arm's length away from my goal…" She exhaled, opening her eyes. "Maybe… maybe it's time for me to stop trying. Maybe it's time for a change…"

"You're giving up?"

"I've had enough!" she suddenly retorted. "Enough of fighting and always losing, enough of trying and never getting there… I work so hard to climb to the top, only to realize I'm still an inch away. Every time I try and fail, I'm swept in an empty wave of despair. I don't want to have this feeling anymore."

"Morioka-chan…"

"Please, no more."

What Kikumaru felt next was surprising anger. His hands clenched into fists. "You're right, I know you better than anyone, and I know that you quit everything you start!" he accused. "The student council, tennis, the dance team… And now your studies! You'll never get anything done if you keep giving up!"

Instead of arguing, she turned away, her eyes slowly becoming red. Quickly, she blinked the tears back, ordering herself not to cry in front of him. She knew he was right. "Please…" she repeated. "No more, Eiji."

He didn't see any tears when she turned back to face him, but he heard the shakiness of her breath and fell silent.

Subconsciously, she felt the side of her forehead with her fingers. There were too many thoughts, too many memories inside her mind, more than enough for one lifetime. With one final glance at the girl in the mirror, she stepped out the door…

…and crashed into someone who was standing outside.

"Ah, gomen…" the person said, even though it was mostly her fault for not looking where she was going.

"Fuji?" Her eyes widened. She was so shocked she forgot to and a "-san" after his name. "What are you doing here?" '_Don't tell me he likes to wander around in the girl's bathroom too…_'

His smiling face became serious. "I may… have said some things that hurt your feelings." He opened his eyes and looked into hers. "I apologize."

'_So blue…_'

"It didn't have anything to do with you…" she replied, trying to take her eyes away from his but not quite managing to do so. She tried hard to convince herself that he was stuffy and pompous, like all the other students in the school. '_Not everything has to have something to do with you! The world doesn't revolve around you!_'

"I wasn't implying that it had to have something to do with me…" he said, reading her thoughts. His smiling face was back but his voice was still sincere.

Now that the blue of his eyes was hidden, she finally tore her eyes away. His voice made her skin tingle, and she wasn't sure it was a good sign. He was her rival, she reminded herself. '_Besides competing in studies, we don't have anything in common._' "Wait… I didn't hear the bell go off." she suddenly murmured, almost to herself.

"Class isn't over yet." Fuji explained.

"Sensei didn't even try to stop us. We followed you out before the bell rang, nya." Kikumaru said.

"…why?" Her suspicions were immediately aroused.

Kikumaru poked her cheek. "Isn't that what friends are supposed to do?"

'_Friends_?' The concept was foreign to her. Strange… they had been in the same class for three years, but she knew nothing about either of them. Sure, she had dropped the honorifics with Eiji in her second year of high school, and they did talk on a regular basis (Because he was so insistent on forcing her to have a conversation with him)… She couldn't help wondering why he wanted to be friends with her. He was popular as the class clown; whereas she was… she didn't really know who she was anymore.

As for Fuji Syusuke… she didn't know him at all. Even though they were classmates, they didn't talk much... She had a closer relationship with Yuuta when he was at Seigaku, probably because the similarities in their personalities.

'_Friends?_' Her mind rejected the idea, yet her heart wanted it. She shook her head in order to clear the confusion that was fogging it up and experienced a slight throbbing pain. Was it possible to get a headache from pondering unanswerable questions?

"Friends…" Fuji repeated, as if reading her thoughts again.

Not sure how to reply, she turned away. "Let's get back to class…"

* * *

The door opened. "Ryuzaki-sensei, you wanted to see me?" Oishi said as he stepped inside the classroom. He glanced at the clock on the wall. There was still forty minutes of lunch break.

"Ah, Oishi," Coach Ryuzaki looked up from her papers. "Perfect timing. We're here to talk about how the tryouts are taking place this afternoon," She turned to her right and gestured at the girl sitting next to her. "This is the current captain of the Seigaku girl's team, Ito Akane."

"We've met," Akane stood up to shake Oishi's hand. "But it's a pleasure anyway."

"Nice to meet you… again. No, wait, I mean, it's a pleasure too." Oishi stammered, flustered. He turned bright red. The captain of the girl's team was a _girl,_ and an attractive one at that.

Akane laughed. "It's ok, Oishi-kun, I don't bite."

Ryuzaki cleared her throat. "So, the tryouts…"

Tezuka nodded. "Since we don't have much time before the regional tournaments, I believe an elimination tournament is the most proper way of determining the regulars."

"Eh?" Oishi blinked. "We're not using the block method?"

"We can't." Akane replied.

"This is the amount of people that have signed up." Tezuka passed him a sheet of paper.

Oishi's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "Seventy-four?"

"And unless you can divide that evenly into four blocks, I think Tezuka's method would be more sufficient." Akane said.

"Ah… I suppose. But wouldn't that be a "winner takes all" method?" Oishi said thoughtfully. "If two strong players were pitted against each other in the preliminaries, the one who lost would lose all her chances of becoming a regular."

"Hmm… good point," Coach Ryuzaki murmured. "That way we may be eliminating some players with huge potential."

Akane brushed a curl of her light ginger hair out of her eyes. "We'll watch every match carefully and keep track of all the scores. Our decisions won't be based on the tournament itself. What we really want to see is how these players perform on the courts. This way, if someone with potential is eliminated in the preliminaries, she will still have a shot at getting a position as a regular."

Tezuka tapped his pen against the sheet. "We may not have enough time for that. Our club can't sacrifice more than four days without practice. With the upcoming tournaments, both clubs must be given more time for training."

"That's right," Oishi said. "An elimination tournament would be very time consuming."

"Then let me suggest an alternative," Akane responded quickly. "Those who win in the preliminaries will go on to round two. There will only be two rounds, and we will decide on the regulars based on the skills they show when they are on the court."

"Works for me." Coach Ryuzaki said with a shrug. "What about you, Tezuka?"

He nodded. "Since all the courts are going to be taken this afternoon, I'll have our tennis club regulars watch the matches and see if they can spot any talent in any of the players."

"Oh, and one more thing," Akane said. "Make sure that the one watching the matches is completely unbiased."

"Practical as always, Akane," Coach Ryuzaki said as she checked the papers again. "So the tryouts will start from 2:30 pm and go until sundown," She shuffled them. "With any luck, we'll be able to have the semis tomorrow."

* * *

"Hey there." Sayaka greeted the person who had chosen the locker next to her.

"Hi," Akane smiled. "I'm Ito Akane. Nice to meet you."

"Momoshiro Sayaka. Same here."

"You're trying out?"

"Yep," she replied as she changed clothes. "It's about time I start making my idiot brother look bad at tennis."

"_You're _Momoshiro's twin," Akane said in amusement, stepping back to take a good look. "I see the resemblance now. So you also play tennis?"

"Yeah, he got me into it," She ran a hand through her wild, short black hair. "But I've never competed in any tournaments or anything; my training was just watching his matches and practicing in secret. What about you?"

Before Akane could answer, someone covered her eyes from behind. "Akane-buchou, Akane-buchou! Guess who?"

"Take your hands off if you don't want to die, Kimiko."

"Waah!" the new girl cried. "Buchou is scary! Kimi doesn't wanna play with you anymore."

Sayaka felt her mouth drop open. "_You're _the captain of the girl's team?"

"Yeah, about that…" She turned around. "Kimiko, remember, I'm not your buchou anymore. Tezuka's captain of both teams now. And it's about time you grew up and stopped acting like such a child."

"Kimi is a child!" the girl complained. Her head had a bright crop of magenta hair that just barely reached her chin. "Kimi is only a second year!"

"Eh?" Sayaka quickly tried to conceal her surprise. So this Kimiko was her age? She was almost sure that she was a first year. '_She's two inches shorter than me!_' Come to think of it, why hadn't she ever noticed this girl in her grade? Surely the pink hair would've made her easy to identify.

"Do you think you guys could shut up over there?"

Another girl appeared.

Akane looked unfazed. "Hey Suzume."

"Suzume-chan?" Kimiko suddenly fell silent.

"It's annoying that we tennis club members also have to try out," Suzume said, slinging her bag of rackets over her shoulder. "After all, all the regulars will be the from the tennis club, no doubt."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Sayaka said before she could stop herself. Every word that came out of Suzume's mouth just seemed to make her blood boil.

Suzume cast her a side-long glance. "I didn't realize there was an outsider here," She smirked. "Let me offer you a piece of advice: Beware of your overconfidence. You'll have to eat up all your words."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Sayaka replied angrily. "But I don't think I'll take your advice."

"And that's coming from a member of a team that got cut because they weren't good enough." Suzume said.

"Kimura, watch your tongue." Akane warned before Sayaka could retort. Good thing too, or else Sayaka would've launched at her, claws extended.

"Hai, buchou." she muttered before walking out the door. She knew that when Akane started calling people by their last name was when she was most likely to be pissed off.

Kimiko sighed and turned to Sayaka. "Sorry you had to meet her like that," Her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh right, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Marui Kimiko!" She grinned and made a victory sign next to her face, as if she was posing for a picture. "How do you do?"

"Kimura Suzume's the club rebel. We don't know what to do with her; but we wouldn't know what to do without her." Akane stated.

"You'll get used to her." Kimiko said cheerily, back to her usual self now that Suzume had left.

Sayaka stared at the nametag on Suzume's locker and clenched her fists. "I doubt it."

Akane watched her. "You'd do better to."

* * *

Izumi was the last person to leave the classroom. She shut the door behind her slowly, balancing her three textbooks on her other arm.

'_Eiji was right._' What he said to her earlier that day seemed to be on automatic replay in her brain; it was all she could think about. '_"You'll never get anything done if you keep giving up!"_'

After that incident, she had immediately signed up for the girl's tennis team, and borrowed Tezuka's physics test so she could correct her mistakes. She had also approached Inui for his chemistry test, as he was more skilled than her in that particular subject. Shame that his English skills weren't so sharp or he would've also rivaled her in studies. '_The only English words he uses are "Inui Juice"…_'

Her Japanese language skills were the best in the grade, but it was on this particular test that she lost 0.5 points to Fuji. However, she didn't ask him for his test. There was something refraining her from doing so, some type of invisible barrier that prevented her.

She hoped that she wouldn't run into another teacher. After the midterm exam results had come out, every teacher she met congratulated her with that look of pity in their eyes.

Her books weighed heavily down on her arm as she walked down the hallway, and she shifted them to her other arm. Suddenly, the classroom to her right opened and someone stepped out. She sidestepped quickly to avoid a collision, but in doing so, her books slid out of her arms and onto the floor. The test papers flew out of the pages of the books and scattered.

"Gomen," the person said, leaning down to pick up the books and the test papers. He handed the papers to her, folded carefully inside her physics textbook, a smile playing upon his lips. "We have to stop crashing into each other like this, Morioka-san."

"Arigato, Fuji-san." She reached out to take her other two textbooks, but he tucked them under his arm.

"I'll carry them for you. We're both heading for the courts, ne?"

Her expression hardened. "Fuji-san, I'm not a weakling."

"I never thought you were," he replied. Then he gestured down the hallway. "Shall we?"

They ended up walking side by side down to the courts. She made no attempt at conversation; her thoughts were still echoing in her head. Was she really doing the right thing? What if she had forgotten how to play? And her studies… how many more midterm exams were there before graduation? Would she ever be able to stand at the top of the academic rankings?

"You used to be the lead dancer on the dance team, right?" Fuji suddenly broke the ice.

"Used to be."

More silence.

"I didn't know you played tennis."

"There's a lot about me that you don't know."

He stopped walking abruptly. "Morioka-san, are you all right?"

Izumi paused for a moment before saying, "What do you mean?"

"You seem… troubled." He opened his eyes.

She looked him in the eye. "I'm fine."

Her dark eyes clashed harshly with his piercing blue gaze. His eyes were blinding, burning into hers like twin suns. So blinding, so pure, it felt like they could strip away all the barriers she had set protectively around herself, look into her very core and unveil every black drop of her soul. She was sure that when she looked away, she would still see them watching her.

She was afraid of those eyes.

He smiled lightly, and his eyes folded back into crescents. "That's good."

After a few more minutes of walking in awkward silence, they reached the courts. She turned to go. They way his gaze made her feel like her innermost secrets were being revealed… it scared her.

"Good luck becoming a regular, Morioka-san." he said, even though she had already turned around.

"Izumi." she said before she could stop herself.

"Sorry?"

"Call me Izumi."

* * *

Coach Ryuzaki looked at all the girls gathered before her. There were so many! Even her granddaughter had shown up, clutching a racket timidly to her chest. "Those that are here for tryouts, please look at the board to see which court you are assigned to and who you'll be playing. Once your match is finished, leave your court and report your score to Inui Sadaharu immediately."

Akane stepped forward. "Your success rate at becoming a regular is based on how you perform. The more talent we see from you, the more likely you'll be chosen, so don't hesitate to go all out."

"Now then," Coach Ryuzaki continued. "Let the tryouts begin!"

* * *

End Chapter Two

Again, the more reviews I get, the more motivation I get to continue writing. So spend a couple of seconds to press that button that says "review".

And for the next chapter, I'll have a little more action because the tryouts are going to begin! Whoot!

Chapter Three: Girl Power!

Coming soon. (Or it depends.)


	3. Girl Power!

**Disclaimer: I own all the OC characters in this fic (obviously), but I don't own Prince of Tennis. All those cool characters belong to Konomi-san.**

Um…. This chapter doesn't have that much action. I scraped a lot of my previous writing, because it's REALLY hard to write a tennis match in DETAIL. Unlike the anime, you have no cool effects, no awesome music… etc etc. Oh well. I'll have it in the next, next chapter. Yup.

All my characters make an appearance in this one, and the most detailed match I have in here is Sakuno's! Yay! The rest are just comments about a match. A little RyoSaku in here, if you squint your eyes. I'm trying _**not**_ to go OOC, so RyoSaku progress might be a little slow.

To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Three: Girl Power!

* * *

Tezuka gathered all the Seigaku regulars before him, with the exception of Inui, who was already busy taking notes about the matches. "Since the courts are being used today—"

"—and we have nothing to do—" Momoshiro muttered.

"—I have volunteered us to help pick out the future regulars."

"Eeh?" Several voices cried.

"This will be interesting." Fuji commented.

Tezuka pushed his glasses up. "Make note of the players that you believe have the most potential. At the end of the tryouts, please report these names to Inui." He glanced down at a piece of paper. "I shall now assign you to watch specific courts. Oishi, Kawamura, court A."

"COUNT ON ME, BABY!" Kawamura hollered, brandishing his racket.

"We'll do our best, Tezuka." Oishi said, ducking slightly to avoid Kawamura's swings.

"Fuji, Momoshiro, court B."

Momoshiro whined, "But I want to watch Sayaka's match! She's in court C!"

Fuji smiled. "I'm sure the whole point was to make sure the selections were unbiased, Momo."

"It's not fair, it's not."

Tezuka eyed him for a moment, enough to silence him. Then he continued down the list. "Kikumaru, Kaidoh, court C."

"Let's scout out the best, Kaoru-chan!" Kikumaru said, jumping up and down and patting Kaidoh's head.

"Fsssh…."

"And finally," Tezuka paused for a moment. "Echizen, court D."

Ryoma lifted his head. "Eh? By myself?"

"Yes." Tezuka replied. "Court D will be mostly freshmen. Besides, it's also the court closest to Inui, so he'll be able to take a look when he's not writing."

Pulling his cap back down, Ryoma nodded slightly, accepting the arrangements.

"That's all," Tezuka said. "Yu Dan Sezu ni Ikou! (_Don't let your guard down_)"

* * *

_Court A_

There was a thud of a ball being smashed. Then…

"Game and match, Marui, 6 games to love."

Kimiko let out a yawn. "What? It's over already?" she said in surprise. "I was just getting warmed up…"

Her opponent couldn't even stand up.

She smiled sweetly. "Let's have another go, just for fun, ne?"

Oishi blinked to see if he was dreaming. That Marui was only about a decimeter taller than Echizen, and at least ten inches shorter than her opponent. (Her opponent was abnormally tall for a girl.) "Dynamite in a small package…"

After much persuasion from his vice-captain, Kawamura had finally set down his racket and was back to his calm self. "She has an incredible amount of stamina!"

"Iie," Oishi said, disagreeing. "Did you notice her play style? Her net play was much different than Kikumaru's… She hit a lot of drop shots and cord balls, so she didn't need to use up much energy. All the time she was tricking her opponent, making them think that her shots wouldn't go over the net." '_I've seen this play style somewhere…_'

"Marui Kimiko. Age: 16. Dominant Hand: Right." Kawamura read aloud, consulting the application form all players handed in before they began their tryouts. He glanced at Oishi. "It says here that she used to be part of the girl's tennis club. They didn't have regulars before, but Ito-buchou noted her as one of the best players."

"Taka-san, may I…?" Oishi took the profile from his hands and skimmed it. There was a question asking the former buchou to rate the athlete's tennis skills, and Akane had checked the box that said: _Among the top ten_.

"I think we could recommend her."

"Ah…" Oishi nodded, still looking at the profile. '_But she's a lot stronger than she lets on. I'd like to see her against a more proficient opponent._' He frowned. '_I'm _sure_ I've seen her play style somewhere before… Nope, Eiji's was way different… Hyotei's Jirou-kun, maybe?_'

Kawamura smiled slightly as he compared her profile picture to the actual girl. "The team could use someone like her. A volley expert, huh?"

It hit him then.

"Wait!" Oishi cried as Kimiko began to leave the courts.

"Hmm?" She turned, a towel slung over her neck even though she was hardly sweating.

"Are you, by any chance, the sister of Rikkaidai Fuzoku's Marui Bunta?"

She let out an exasperated sigh. "WHY does everyone keep asking me that?" she yelled in frustration. "I'm NOT his sister! Bunta doesn't even HAVE a sister!"

Everyone looked their way, locating the source of the noise.

Oishi sweatdropped. "Ano… I'm sorry I asked…"

"We're _distant_ cousins! REALLY distant! We don't even look alike—"

'_You look exactly the same, magenta hair and all._' Oishi thought.

"And if you dare say that my style of tennis is the same as his—"

"Umm... Excuse me, miss?" The referee interrupted politely. "Could you please leave the courts? The next set is about to begin."

Oishi half expected her to start arguing with the referee, but it turned out to be the opposite. Kimiko bowed over and over, rather enthusiastically. "Gomen ne, Gomen ne!" The whole crowd sweatdropped at her sudden change of attitude. She then bounded to where Oishi was standing.

"You're Oishi Shuchirou, right?" she questioned sweetly.

'_Was this the girl that was yelling at me a moment ago?_' "Ah…Yeah…"

"I'm Marui Kimiko!" She made another victory sign next to her face. "Nice to meet you!" She turned to Kawamura and did the same pose. "Kawamura Takashi-senpai, nice to meet you too!"

Oishi and Kawamura exchanged glances. "Ah… same here."

"Well, I hope the next match won't be half as boring as mine was," She twirled a lock of her short pink hair. "I better report my score to Inui-senpai. Ja ne!" She blew them a kiss and bounced happily away.

The courts suddenly seemed a lot quieter. Kawamura turned to Oishi: "She's rather, uh... flighty, isn't she?"

Oishi was starting to have second thoughts about recommending her. He massaged his temples. Already her excitement seemed to be wearing him out, and he had known her for no more than a couple minutes. '_Still, she's a great tennis player…_' he thought, a smile making its way onto his face. '_I guess I don't have a choice._'

* * *

"Inui-san," Reina tapped on the desk to get his attention. "Akane-buchou asked me to hand this list to you."

"Hmm?" He raised his head from his notebook and took the list from her hands, scanning the title. "Players that voluntarily withdrew from the tryouts?"

"It should be accurate."

The list not only contained the names of the tennis players, but also their year and class, neatly printed in the smallest handwriting possible. The list was long, and she had barely managed to squeeze all the names on three sheets of notebook paper. He noticed that most of the names were those of freshmen.

"Probability that they only signed up to see Seigaku club members up close…" Inui paused to calculate.

"Ninety-three percent." they said at the same time.

"Probability that there are going to be withdrawals later on…"

Reina reacted a split second faster than him. "Ninety-six point three percent."

"Hmmm…." he murmured in amusement. "I was going to say ninety-two point five percent."

A wry smile crept across her face. "I have taken into my calculations the small percentage of second years that will withdraw when they observe Kimura Suzume's tennis," she said. "Her type of tennis will trigger great agitation, trepidation, and consternation caused by the expectation of danger, among those designated to be her opponents."

Inui smiled as well. "So I see…"

"You still can't speak normally, can you, Reina?" Akane said as she walked over to them. "Might as well save your breath and just say: "Suzume's tennis can scare the living daylights out of anyone.""

Reina pushed her rounded rectangular lenses up her nose, looking slightly hurt. Her glasses weren't quite as thick as Inui's; her _visible_ beautifully tilted eyes were strangely alluring. Along with her shoulder length black hair that curved naturally outwards and pale golden skin, she was a typical Asian beauty, and might've been the most popular girl in the school. '_But the way she talks frightens off everyone._' Akane thought.

She suddenly turned to Inui. "I almost forgot. Ito Akane, court B, 6 games to love."

* * *

_Court B_

"Osaka forfeits. Game and match to Kimura, 3 games to love."

Momoshiro was speechless for that instant. (This is a big deal, since he's always talking.) He moved his lips, but no sound came out, until finally he found his voice. "Oi… Fuji-senpai… that wasn't…"

"Ah." Fuji's blue eyes were wide open. "Second year, Kimura Suzume."

Momoshiro looked down at Suzume's application form. The paper was shaking. In fact, his whole body was trembling. "Her tennis…" He couldn't even finish his sentence properly. He tried again. "Her tennis…"

Fuji finished it for him. "…is frightening…" His eyes narrowed as he watched her walk off the courts, taking in the way she looked; the way she acted. Her red hair was parted so that the left side of her face was completely covered. Out of pure curiosity, he wondered if she was good enough to beat most players with just one eye.

Momoshiro shivered inwardly when she walked past them on her path to Inui. As expected, she stopped to talk. They weren't in the same class, but they did have English period together. It wasn't like they were strangers. "Yo, Momoshiro. Did you enjoy the show?"

"Ah…" He paused, trying to say something positive. "I didn't know you could play tennis like that…"

She hooked a spare strand of hair behind her ear, revealing that she had pierced her ears multiple times. "That was nothing. You wanna play? I'll show you some _real _tennis."

"Eh… I'll pass…"

She smirked. "Scared?"

"Of course not!" he said defensively. "I—"

"All right, I get it, I wouldn't want to play me either." She shrugged and continued walking.

Momoshiro turned back to Fuji. "Fuji-senpai, you're not going to select her, are you?"

"Actually, I am."

"What?" he burst out. "But… it's like selecting a female Kirihara! We don't want that!"

Fuji sharpened his gaze. "You and I both understand that she's far from that." The tone in his voice changed. The temperature seemed to have dropped ten degrees.

Momoshiro backed down. "Ah… I suppose so…

"We've already seen four matches. Besides the obvious Ito-buchou, she's the only other player that stands out enough."

"All right then." he gave in. But he couldn't let go of one chilling thought. '_What if her tennis takes another step forward? What if it truly becomes violent?_' "No matter what, I hope Sayaka never has to play her."

Akane approached court B again. "Did I miss the action?" she called to the two Seigaku regulars.

"Ah…" Fuji replied. "Kimura Suzume's match just finished."

She sighed. "Well, there's nothing I can do about that."

"It's a shame. It was a very exciting match." Fuji told her.

"Exciting my foot," Momoshiro muttered under his breath. "It was downright _scary_."

Akane tied her fluffy ginger hair up into a practical ponytail. "Looks like Chiharu's up next."

"Who?"

She pointed to a girl with bluish-gray hair in pigtails, not unlike Tomoka's hair style. "Oshiro Chiharu. Third year, and one of the best players."

The girl made her way onto the court. About halfway there, she tripped over her own two feet and fell, scraping her knee.

Momoshiro glanced at Akane. "You sure she's one of the best?"

Akane nodded. "She's downright clumsy, but besides maybe Morioka Izumi, you'll never find a more graceful person on the courts."

Sure enough. The game began, and Chiharu creamed her opponent, 6-0.

* * *

_Court C_

"Game and match to Momoshiro, 6 games to 1."

Sayaka smiled as she wiped her brow and shook hands with her opponent. She felt a little down that her opponent had been able to take one game away from her, but she had needed to give up that one game to test out her new tennis style. Soon, as she adjusted her steps, her body began moving almost on its own. She didn't even need to think.

He legs ached slightly as she walked back to the bench. '_Maybe I should've stretched better._'

Kikumaru's eyes were wide with wonder. "Kaoru-chan!" He had his arm around Kaidoh's neck and was shaking him. "Did you see that? Did you see that?"

"Ah…" Kaidoh said. He too, was so captivated that he ignored the fact that he was being strangled half to death.

She took a long, well-deserved drink from her water bottle. Suddenly, someone jumped her from behind.

"Sayaka-chaaaaaaaan!" Kikumaru said happily, not caring about the water that sloshed over his arms from her water bottle.

Kaidoh was relieved that his senpai had found someone new to cling onto.

"Ah… senpai..." Quickly, she dipped her flexible body and escaped his grasp. "Who said you could call me Sayaka-_chan_?" she said, punching his shoulder playfully. He had nice eyes, she noticed.

"Your tennis is really amazing! I thought as Momo's sister, you'd have the same style as him."

"Nah, I like to differ from that baka. Or else his stupidity might rub off on me," she replied. "And I didn't take gymnastics for nine years for nothing."

"But this is your first time playing acrobatic tennis, right?" he asked.

She blinked in surprise. "How did you know that?"

"Hee hee," He smiled knowingly. "Your flips didn't have that much fluidity. You'll get better at that, nya." He leaned over and mussed her hair.

"Hey!" She ducked. "Do I look like your pet dog?"

"Nya, more like a cat. Kind of like me!"

Kaidoh observed them. Kikumaru had only met Sayaka yesterday, yet they were already like the best of friends. Kaidoh, however, had been in the same class with her for two years, yet they rarely spoke. He couldn't help feeling just a little put out. '_That's just how Kikumaru-senpai is…_'

Almost immediately, Sayaka turned to him, "So, how did I do, Kaidoh?"

He gave an approving nod. Sayaka may have been looking for more than just a nod, but coming from Kaidoh, it meant a lot to her.

"Maa, Kaidoh, what are you talking about!" Kikumaru protested. "She was incredible! I think you might even be more acrobatic than me…"

Unfortunately for them, Coach Ryuzaki had been patrolling the area nearby. "Kikumaru! Kaidoh!" she hollered, so loudly players from court A swiveled their heads around. "The next set is about to start! So stop flirting and get your butts over here!"

Both of them winced, their cheeks carrying a red tint. "Oh no!" Kikumaru said. "We got caught. Ja ne, Sayaka-chan!" He waved as they walked back to an angry coach.

Coach Ryuzaki pulled their cheeks, hard, almost distorting their facial features. "What were you guys thinking?"

"Ite!"

* * *

"Ah… Inui-senpai…" Sakuno said timidly.

"Hmm?" He finished noting another score before looking up and noticing the tiny girl before him. "Ah, Ryuzaki Sakuno-san," Flipping a page in his notebook, he said, "You're up next, court D."

"H-hai!"

She walked to the court and began doing her stretches. Suddenly, she felt a racket tap her shoulder.

"You bend your knees too much." said a voice she knew all too well.

"R-Ryoma-kun," She turned around to look at him. "Are you watching me play?" she asked, slightly hopefully. A shy smile crept onto her face.

He shrugged, a bored expression upon his face. "I have no choice. I'm assigned to scout this court."

The smile dropped. "Ah…" she murmured sadly "So that's how it is…"

"RYOMA-SAMA!" someone shrieked. Three guesses who. "**L**. **O**. **V**. **E**. RYOMA-SAMA!"

Ryoma looked dazed for a moment, then he saw Tomoka doing her cheerleading dance, he sighed.

This was going to be a _long_ day.

"Sakuno!" Tomoka called. "Are you here to cheer for me?"

"Eh?" Sakuno looked bewildered. "Tomo-chan… you're playing? Court D?"

"Yeah! What about it?"

"Ano…" Sakuno didn't know how to tell her. The air she inhaled suddenly seemed icy cold.

It turned out she didn't need to. When their eyes met, Tomoka realized that she had been pitted against her best friend. All those times they had practiced tennis together, and when they had bugged Ryoma in coaching them… Her expression changed.

"Will both players please enter the court?"

They both walked to the net. "Tomo-chan…" Sakuno wanted to say something, but she didn't know what to say. She didn't know what the appropriate thing to say was. '_When Momo-chan-senpai and Ryoma-kun played it wasn't this awkward… why does it feel so different?_' She shook hands with her friend, and noticed that Tomoka's hand was just as cold as hers.

"I never thought we'd have to play each other." Tomoka said quietly. "But it doesn't matter."

"One set match! Ryuzaki to serve!"

She bounced the ball on the ground a couple of times. Her hand was shaking slightly. '_Ryoma-kun's watching me… I can't lose…_' Then she tossed the ball upwards. '_Focus… keep your eye on the ball..._' Taking in a breath, she jumped up and swung her racket in an overhand serve.

Her racket was met with air.

"Fault!"

She had missed the ball.

Her face turned tomato red from embarrassment. "I guess I really am nervous…" she whispered to herself, mortified. '_Maybe I should just quit…_'

"Hey," the referee said. "Could you please serve?"

"Ah, gomenasai!" She gripped the ball tightly. '_No, I can't quit! It would be dishonorable to obaa-chan…._' Again she tossed the ball upwards, jumped, and served.

Ryoma's eyes narrowed.

This time her racket connected with the ball. It flew on a diagonal line straight to the right corner of the service line.

"15-love."

"Hmm…" Ryoma murmured. "Not bad." '_Service ace? Looks like she got a little practice…_' Last time he had seen her play, she still couldn't hit the ball properly. He was surprised to see her show a near-perfect serving form.

She served overhand again, this time to the left. Tomoka managed to return her shot, and they soon got a rally going.

Akane was talking with Reina at the time, but then noticed a small crowd gathering around the D-court, consisting mostly of freshmen. She walked over to take a look.

Just then, Tomoka ended the long rally with a drop shot.

"15-all."

"These two are pretty good, for freshmen." Akane commented as another rally got underway.

"Tomo-chan," Sakuno called as she returned another shot. "You're really good!"

Her friend smiled as she ran around the courts. "My parents got me a coach a few months ago," she replied, lobbing the ball up. Sakuno jumped up, braids flying like twin dragons, and smashed it to the right corner. "You're not bad yourself," Tomoka said, panting slightly. "When did you get so good?"

"30-15."

"My grandmother starting coaching me a while back," she said as she served again. '_This feeling…_' They had finally walked past that awkward barrier. Now, they were just friends engaged in a friendly match. Sakuno began to remember the feeling of pure enjoyment she felt when she first held a racket. Maybe she started tennis so it would bring her closer to Ryoma, but now, she had developed quite a passion for the sport she was playing.

'_Obaa-chan and Ryoma-kun have used their precious time to help coach me! I won't let that go to waste!_'

"Hmm…" Akane watched with interest. "That girl with long braids is getting more aggressive."

"She's hitting to the corners of the court, and shots that have low bounces." Ryoma said. "Those are hard to reach."

Akane gave him a quick look, then turned her attention back to the game. "Right. And even if one does reach them, then they use up energy in running." '_But that other girl isn't bad… she's picking up most of the shots…_'

Tomoka tightened her grip on her racket as she hit a ball to the right corner. '_What?_' Sakuno seemed to move before her racket even touched the ball. By the time the shot had gotten there, she was already in receiving mode. She returned the diagonal shot to the very edge of the court.

'_She almost seems magnetically drawn to the ball… there's only one other girl I know who can do that…_' Akane thought.

Tezuka was watching the match from a distance. Silently, he took out a pen and made a note on his piece of paper.

Half an hour later

"Game, Ryuzaki. 6 games to 2."

They shook hands. "You're amazing, Tomo-chan," Sakuno said, catching her breath.

"You're the one that's amazing," Tomoka replied. "You must've trained extra hard. But I won't lose next time! "

Sakuno smiled slightly as she walked back to the bench. She put her racket away and zipped up her bag. A shadow fell over her and she looked up.

"Ryoma-kun!" She blushed slightly, reaching a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun.

He still had a bored expression (doesn't he always) and was drinking a can of Ponta.

'_I thought by watching me, maybe he wouldn't be so bored…_' she thought, a little sadly. "Ano… I know I didn't play that well…" she ventured. "So… do you have any advice?"

He took the can away from his lips. She prepared to take his answer, however harsh it was. "Your hair is too long."

There was a long pause.

"Th-that's it?"

"Hmm…" He smiled slightly. "Really? I thought you played pretty well."

* * *

"Akane!" Reina called. "We have a problem."

"Huh?" She stepped over to the desk. Inui and Reina were both seated at it, and both were writing furiously with their pencils. "What is it?"

"Tezuka-buchou _did_ volunteer the male regulars to help pick out potential tennis players, right?"

Akane blinked her blue eyes. Something must be up. "Reina, what's wrong? I can actually understand you." If Reina started speaking standard, understandable Japanese, it _must _be a bad sign.

"The problem is, we can't possibly have a Round Two!" She flipped a couple pages back. "Too many people have withdrawn. My apologies, Inui-san," Her fingers reached up to adjust her glasses. "It seems that my calculations were incorrect. Kimura Suzume must've scared off more that what I have taken into account."

"Not just Suzume," Akane voiced her thoughts aloud. "Kimiko, Chiharu, you, me… All of us went all out today. We didn't hold anything back."

"And that is why… we are left with so little people willing to continue in the second round." Reina concluded.

"Well, if they are too scared to face up to us, than they wouldn't be good members anyway," Akane pointed out. "We'll just make use of the ones that are brave enough to stay."

"So that means… we pick the regulars today." Inui stated slowly, to make sure.

"Yes. Inui, why do you treat me as if I talk like Reina?"

* * *

The skies were just beginning to turn pink. Due to the number of people who forfeited, the matches ended early. Soon, Coach Ryuzaki gathered all male regulars before her. "All right, boys. We have about ten minutes before all the girls gather," she said. "Let's hear it. Did you discover anyone with enough skill? Oishi, Kawamura, we'll start with you."

Oishi spoke. "From court A… Second year, Marui Kimiko. Third year, Watanabe Reina, and third year, Morioka Izumi."

Kikumaru and Fuji exchanged smiles when Izumi's name was read.

Both Inui's and Reina's pens were flying at amazing speeds. Tezuka, Akane, and Coach Ryuzaki had walked from court to court freely, noting down the girls _they_ thought were the most capable. Inui was writing down all the names spoken, and Reina was checking the names that appeared more than once.

Reina nodded to Tezuka once she was finished, allowing them to continue to court B.

Fuji stepped forward. "From court B… Second year, Kimura Suzume. Third year, Ito Akane, and third year, Oshiro Chiharu.

"Oshiro?" Kikumaru echoed. "She can't even walk down the hallway without tripping at least three times." He laughed.

"Eiji!" Oishi said in a scolding tone.

Inui gave Tezuka the nod, and they proceeded to the next court.

"From court C… Second year, Momoshiro Sayaka—" Kaidoh was cut off.

"All right!" Momoshiro exclaimed. "Sayaka made it! Awesome!"

"Urusei! Shut up!"

"What's that, Mamushi?"

Akane calmly walked up to both and dumped the contents of an icy cold water bottle on their heads.

"And…" Kikumaru continued, since Kaidoh was still in shock from the impact of freezing water on his sweltering skin. "Third year, Komboi Aiko! She's a foreign exchange student!" He jumped up and down excitedly.

Reina and Inui finished writing at the same time. They nodded simultaneously.

"Echizen." Tezuka pressed.

He lifted his head. "There wasn't anyone that stood out in particular." '_Half of them couldn't even hit the ball…_'

"As expected of the freshmen," Akane touched her chin thoughtfully. "There was that one girl that was pretty good. The one with braids… what was her name again?"

"…Ryuzaki Sakuno…"

"She was all right. I think she may be a good doubles player."

"She's _my_ granddaughter," Coach Ryuzaki said proudly. "And yes, she has shown good improvement lately, but I still don't believe she's ready to take on the responsibility of a regular."

Akane pondered for a moment. "She seems enthusiastic enough. I wish we could've had her against a more skilled opponent though. But since there's no one else…"

"She played better than some of the athletes on A and B courts," Tezuka reported. "I believe she would be a valuable member."

"It's settled," Inui declared. "All members recommended have appeared at least twice on these lists." Reina held them up, red circles drawn around the names that were just pronounced.

"Wait," Akane interjected. "I have a few objections as to choosing Morioka Izumi as a regular."

"Eeh?" Kikumaru cried. "Why?"

She silenced him with a glare. "She quit halfway through a match last time. How do we know she's not going to do that again?"

"That's true. The student council too… she left after only two months…" Oishi mentioned.

"Everyone deserves a second chance. Besides," Fuji turned to exchange another look with Kikumaru. "We have a reason to believe that she's not going to back down this time."

* * *

"Everyone did very well today," Coach Ryuzaki said to the crowd of girls before her. "Due to some changes, we shall be confirming the regulars today."

There were excited whispers among the crowd.

Tezuka stepped forward. "I shall now announce the name list or those chosen. Third year, Ito Akane…"

"Obviously!" Half the crowd exclaimed.

"Third year, Watanabe Reina…"

"Hmm…" She pushed her glasses up, looking satisfied.

"Third year, Oshiro Chiharu…"

"Eh? You're kidding!" Some people in the crowd laughed, obviously those who didn't see her play. "She can't even walk onto the court without falling down!" Chiharu tried to shrink down, hiding her face.

"Third year, Komboi Aiko…"

Several people in the crowd looked among themselves, but no one knew who she was.

"Third year, Morioka Izumi…"

A couple people glanced in her direction quickly. She bent her head, not wanting to meet any of their eyes. Her hair cast shadows over her eyes.

"Second year, Marui Kimiko…"

"Yay!" Kimiko squealed. "I made the team!" The people near her applauded, and she did a curtsy. Kimiko was popular among most people.

"Second year, Kimura Suzume…"

No one said anything. No one dared to look at her.

"Second year, Momoshiro Sayaka…"

She was delightedly surprised. "Didn't expect that!"

"And finally…" Tezuka paused. "First year, Ryuzaki Sakuno."

"Eeh?" The freshmen trio clutched the wire of the fence that separated them from the courts. "What?"

"Sugoi, Sakuno!" Tomoka applauded.

"A freshmen?"

"A female Echizen, maybe?"

"I bet I could crush her! This is unfair!"

"Those who had their name read, please stay for a moment. The rest are free to go." Coach Ryuzaki said. The crowd slowly filtered out the gates. Some people had disappointed faces on, and several asked for rematches, but she denied all requests.

"Echizen," Oishi was summoning him. "Could you come over here for a moment? When he did, Oishi introduced him to an African American girl. "This is Komboi Aiko. She's part Kenyan, part Japanese, but she doesn't speak a word of either. She only speaks English, and since my English isn't so good…" He laughed uncomfortably.

Sighing, Ryoma explained the current situation in fluent English. After conversing for a few moments, he learned that she was Kenyan by blood, American by citizen. And she did speak a little broken Japanese. After her mother divorced her American father, she brought her back to Japan, where she finally began to learn the language properly.

"She says she's really happy to be on the team," Ryoma translated for Oishi.

"Really? That's good."

"She also says her name is actually Ayikuo, not Aiko. But Japanese people have trouble pronouncing her name, so Aiko will do just fine."

"Aiko it is," Oishi said. "Happy to have you."

* * *

"Izumi?" Akane called. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" She walked briskly to a corner of the courts, where they wouldn't be heard, and Izumi followed her wordlessly.

"Just to let you know, I objected to accepting you on the team." she began.

"Wow, we're being blunt." Izumi muttered.

"Now that you're back on, I need you to tell me you won't quit like last time. You won't quit at all. You'll keep going."

Izumi thought briefly of her future. "I…" She stopped. "I'll try harder than last time. Really, I will. But I can't make you any promises, Akane-buchou." Why was she so afraid of the future?

"Izumi," Akane placed her hands on the black-haired girl's shoulders. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong." It was a lie. Even Akane knew that.

Akane nodded, knowing that to press her further, it would do more harm than good. "You've been hiding behind a black curtain…" she said. "No one can bring you out. You have to step into the light yourself."

* * *

Kawamura raised his racket up at the sky, like the Statue of Liberty. "COME ON, COME ON!" he yelled. "Wait 'til I tell you the news, BABY!"

Aiko was laughing. She said something to Ryoma, and Ryoma translated, "Kawamura-senpai, she said that she can understand some of the things you're saying!"

"My dad is inviting us to have all-you-can-eat SUSHI! It's going to be free, GREAT!"

"Thanks, Taka-san!" Momoshiro cried.

"Do I get a share in this?" Sayaka asked. "'Cause if not, can I go in place of my brother?"

"Hey! That's not fair!—"

"YES! The more the merrier! All the new girl regulars can come and have sushi! We got girl POWER, BABY!"

"Yay!" Almost all of them cheered.

Suzume gave them a contemptuous look. "I think I'll pass."

"Same here." Izumi said. "The offer is very generous, but I have to get home and study."

"Tomorrow we begin training," Akane informed them. "And as of tomorrow, I'm not your buchou anymore. This is a good way for you to get to know the rest of the team."

"I agree." Tezuka said in his deep voice.

"Sorry." Suzume said, not sounding sorry at all. "Getting to know people has never been my thing."

Kikumaru made a sad face at Izumi. "You can always study tomorrow."

"No, I can't because I promised Tezuka-san and Inui-san I'd return their tests tomo—"

"A day late wouldn't make much difference," Inui said. "I don't mind."

Tezuka nodded.

"And you can always bother Fujiko into tutoring you…" Kikumaru suggested. "I do it all the time."

Fuji smiled at her. "I wouldn't mind."

"Fine." she gave in.

They all turned to Suzume. "…if you insist…" she finally said with annoyance.

So, both male and female regulars set off for a decent dinner. Most of them wouldn't admit it, but each one of their stomachs was growling like crazy.

In the distance, the sun was setting. The rays of pale orange light stretched their shadows on the ground. And the nine shadows that used to walk together, became eighteen.

* * *

End Chapter Three

Don't expect more updates unless I get reviews! (Or something) XD

No, I'm not that mean. But I know a lot of you guys have me on story alert, yet you aren't reviewing. C'mon, it takes thirty seconds.

Thanks to all those people who _did _take the time to review. I think I'm going to have the next chapter purely for fluff. Just a little start on some of the romances that take place. But nothing big yet. Everyone is going to sit around eating sushi. WHAT COULD HAPPEN?

If anything can go wrong, it will.

* * *

Many people had trouble remembering the characters, and several suggested that I create biographies of my OCs. I don't want to reveal too much, so I only have some short pointers that you can refer to throughout the whole fanfic.

There are also pictures of them up on my profile, including fanart of my OCs! :D

**Momoshiro Sayaka**

Grade: 2nd Year

Appearance: Build is tall and slender, but she's a bit of a tomboy. Has short, black hair in a style that's similar to Ryoma's. Purple eyes…maybe? I think Momoshiro has purple eyes, but I'm not entirely sure.

Personality: She's outgoing and rowdy (Kind of like her twin)

**Marui Kimiko**

Grade: 2nd Year

Appearance: Female Marui Bunta. Short, magenta hair that is only slighter longer than Bunta's. As short as Ryoma.

Personality: Cute, or tries to be. Hyper, bouncy person.

**Kimura Suzume**

Grade: 2nd Year.

Appearance: Muscular build. Deep red hair (almost red-violet) Hair is split so the left side of her face is covered up entirely. Shoulder length. Ears are pierced (six on left, seven on right). Green eyes… eye.

Personality: Arrogant and rebellious. Smoker.

**Morioka Izumi**

Grade: 3rd Year

Appearance: Average height, slender. Long, long black hair (she can sit on it) that is slightly layered. Black eyes.

Personality: Quiet. Seemingly kind of dark, almost antisocial.

**Ito Akane**

Grade: 3rd Year

Appearance: Average height, slightly stockier build. Fluffy ginger hair with cerulean eyes.

Personality: Down-to-earth, open, blunt.

**Watanabe Reina**

Grade: 3rd Year

Appearance: Tall. Shoulder-length black hair. Glasses that you can see her eyes through. Very, very pretty.

Personality: Talks out of an SAT vocab book. (I mean literally. That's how I learn my SAT vocab.) Is hurt whenever anyone claims she can't speak proper English/Japanese.

**Oshiro Chiharu**

Grade: 3rd Year.

Appearance: Short. Blue-ish gray hair in pigtails. Large amber eyes.

Personality: Quiet and shy. Kind. A bit of a doormat.

**Komboi Ayikuo (Aiko)**

Grade: 3rd Year (Foreign Exchange student)

Appearance: Average height with a muscular build. Half African American. Brownish black hair that is braided with beads at the ends, commonly worn in a ponytail. Brown eyes.

Personality: Very tough and determined. But can't speak Japanese.


	4. Sushi!

**Disclaimer: Don't own prince of tennis.**

Same old excuse, you all. School is taking over my life. Sorry for not updating, yadda yadda.

I started this chapter with an idea of pure fluff, but it turned out quite… unexpected. XD I'm trying to give my characters DEPTH if you know what I mean. Anyways, here the chapter is.

To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Four: Sushi!

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

There was a _CRASH _as the boys barreled through the door of the sushi shop, kicking off their shoes, and chattering loudly as they found their favorite seats. The burst of cold air from the AC was a welcome on their burning skin. Tomoka and the freshmen trio had somehow tagged along, and the room became a whirl of blue and white uniforms and noise. Finally, when they settled down, they realized that not one of the girls had moved an inch from the doorway. (Except for Sakuno, who had been dragged by Tomoka to Ryoma's side.)

For a second there was absolute silence.

"Umm…" Oishi said uncomfortably. "Don't stand there. Come in."

Akane glanced at her new teammates, all unwilling to budge. Finally, she said, "Well, we might as well." She took a seat next to Oishi and beckoned to Chiharu. Chiharu's face turned as red as Ryoma's racket. Only when Kimiko pushed her forward did she sit at Oishi and Tezuka's table.

"Hmm?" Sayaka tapped Kimiko on the shoulder. "Why did she blush?"

"You didn't know?" Akane hid a smile.

"Akane!" Chiharu cried in panic, turned an even redder shade.

Kimiko grinned, whispering in Sayaka's ear: "Chiharu has had a crush on Tezuka for years."

"Ohhhhh…" Sayaka returned the evil smirk. "So does he know?"

"Nope," she replied. "He's the densest human ever, except for maybe that freshman kid."

"Ha… Anyway, we shouldn't let that sushi go to waste, should we?" Sayaka leaped forward, doing a cartwheel and landing on top of her brother. "Take-nii-san, move over!" Kimiko followed her and sat down at the table next to hers. Reina chose a seat at the counter, next to Inui. They soon became engaged in a conversation that no one could understand.

Suzume, Izumi, and Aiko still seemed frozen at the doorway.

"Morioka-chaaaan!" Kikumaru called. "Come sit over here with me!"

She hesitated. Fuji was also at the table.

"Go," Suzume said. "We all have to sit somewhere, sooner or later." She let out a sigh and sat across from Kaidoh, who seemed to be the least talkative, and probably the least annoying. Izumi ended up next to Kikumaru. He had also wrestled Sayaka over to his table, so at least she wasn't the only girl.

"Come in," Kawamura called to Aiko, the only girl left. He said something in English, and she replied. Then he smiled and gestured at a seat at the counter. She joined him there.

"Oi, Echizen," Momoshiro said. "What did Taka-san say?"

"He asked if she had ever had sushi before, and she said no," Ryoma sighed. "Then he offered to teach her exactly how sushi is eaten. It seems you haven't been paying attention during English class, Momo-senpai."

"Hmph," he grumbled. "Everyone knows how sushi is eaten. With their mouth."

"Stupid…" Kaidoh muttered, just loud enough for Momoshiro to hear. Their tables were next to each other.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Momoshiro jumped to his feet, as did Kaidoh.

"Urusei! I only said what's true!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Kimiko slid between the two. "Kaidoh-kun, nice to meet you! I'm Marui Kimiko!" She did her signature pose, a victory sign next to her face. "We're in the same Math period class, if you ever noticed. I used to sit two seats in front of you, but then the teacher moved me waaaaaaay up front, because I'm so small, you see."

Kaidoh seemed overwhelmed.

"You always eat lunch in the classroom, don't you? That's why I never see you in the lunchroom? Must be nice, having freshly cooked homemade food for lunch everyday. My mom never does that for me. But that's ok, because the school lunches aren't that bad."

Kaidoh was going to tell her to get out of the way and be quiet, so he could settle the score with Momoshiro, but she looked so darn _happy_ to be talking that he couldn't do it.

"I like your bandana! But I liked the orange one better. I think it makes you look cuter! Green would clash with my hair, I think." She fingered the short strands of bright magenta hair on her head. "It's like your trademark! That's so kawaii!"

He actually blushed.

Momoshiro sat down and turned to Echizen. "Looks like the Viper's in love!" he whispered excitedly, the fight forgotten.

"Has nothing to do with me," Ryoma said, bored. The food was taking a long time… or did it just seem like forever because of all the noise?

Suzume heaved a sigh, her red hair flying slightly upwards from her breath, though not enough to reveal the left side of her face. She never should've chosen the table with Kimiko. Glancing over at Sayaka's table, she noticed that even though it contained Kikumaru, it was noticeably quieter.

Kimiko was now chattering about patterns on bandanas, and Kaidoh, as if under a spell, was listening to her every word. Finally Suzume could take it no longer. "Kimiko." she said.

"Huh?" the short haired girl turned, her lavender eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Shut up."

She stopped talking.

Momoshiro noted with interest that Kaidoh seemed slightly disappointed…

**xxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi bit her lip, erasing her work for the fifth time. She was redoing a question she missed on the physics test, but for some odd reason, she kept getting the wrong answer. Glancing down at Tezuka's test, she reviewed the problem again and started from the top. After two minutes of writing, she came up with the same answer she had before. Her insides screamed with frustration, but only soft sigh escaped her lips.

A slender finger came into view and pointed to the fourth line of her work. "You shouldn't round your answer here," Fuji mentioned gently. "It changes the calculations."

She tried again, and this time got the correct answer. Strange, that altering a number by 0.001 can make the results change drastically. Why didn't she notice her mistake? Tezuka, clearly, had not rounded the number. "Thank you." Her reply was a little cold. '_I didn't ask for your help._'

He smiled. "You're welcome."

Kikumaru frowned at Izumi's test over her shoulder. "Do mistakes that tiny even matter?"

"Of course!" Sayaka said. "Once, astronauts on the moon were planning their return to Earth. They were off by half a millimeter in their calculations, and as a result they nearly missed Earth on the way back."

"Wow," Kikumaru said, eyes bulging. "I never knew you were so smart, Sayaka!"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

He laughed and mussed her hair.

"Stop it! I hate that!" She reached across the table to mess up _his _hair, but her arm wasn't long enough. Frustrated, she went around the table and practically tacked him in her attempt to get at the red strands of hair sprouting from his head.

He bumped into Izumi when he tried to avoid the assaults to his precious hair. "Sayaka-chan, that hurts! Gomen, Morioka-chan!"

Silently, she gathered up her books and papers, and moved to the other side of the table. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she said quietly to Fuji. "It's too noisy over there."

"Not at all." He moved a little to the side in order to make more space for her, although he didn't need to.

She reopened the physics textbook and stared at it, finding it a tad hard to concentrate with his presence beside her. He was watching her. She felt his eyes upon her, and shifted uncomfortably. After a few moments, she realized that she had been staring at the same formula for the past few minutes. She closed her eyes and breathed out, snapping the book shut. Why couldn't she focus?

**xxxxxxxxxx**

Luckily, the food arrived then. She needed a distraction from her thoughts.

"FOOD!" Momoshiro yelled with joy as plates of sushi rolls were placed at his table. He grabbed several and gobbled them down, knowing he had to eat fast or else he wouldn't get much more than a bite. He wouldn't put it past Echizen to just reach over to his table and steal the remaining sushi.

It almost seemed like they in an eating contest. A plate of sushi disappeared almost as soon as it appeared on the tables. Momoshiro and Ryoma worked their jaws like a pair of cows that were chewing on a particularly tough patch of grass. They kept glancing at each other to check their progress in comparison, eyes set in challenge mode. Kaidoh, Kimiko, and Suzume eyed Momoshiro as he gorged down all the sushi. None of them had gotten a single bite yet. Sakuno and Tomoka didn't dare try and steal even one piece of sushi from Ryoma.

"Hmm?" Ryoma paused and swallowed, suddenly realizing that both girls were watching him. "You're not eating?"

'_Is he asking me?_' The question seemed to be directed to both of them, yet he was looking at her. Blood rushed to her face. Sakuno couldn't find her voice. "Umm… that is… Would you mind?" she finally managed.

He gave her a puzzled look. "Why would I mind?" Then he continued eating. "Strange people…"

Tentatively, Sakuno took a two sushi rolls and handed one to Tomoka. They felt a little weird about eating them, as if Ryoma would look up any minute and demand that they give them back, but he didn't even spare them a glance.

Soon, Kawamura arrived with second servings. He bent down to switch the empty plate of sushi with a new one on Momoshiro's table.

"Thanks, Taka-san!" Momo enthused.

Quick as a flash, Kaidoh swiped the sushi plate before it even touched the tabletop. He picked out the roll with the eel upon it, then set the plate before the two girls, allowing them to eat their shares. Momoshiro complained, but everyone ignored him; he had gotten too much to eat already. He could only watch as they chow down their fillings.

Suzume mocked him. She bit into her roll. "Mmm…" she murmured, savoring the taste. She chewed with relish. "This is really good." Her tongue darted out to catch a kernel of rice stuck to her upper lip.

Momoshiro saw something that suddenly made him lose his appetite. He jumped back a step. "What the hell! You pierced your tongue too? Is there one part of you that's not pierced?"

Absently, Suzume felt for the tiny hoops and studs in her ears (exactly six on her right, seven on her left). Her hand then fingered her small nose stud. Her hand moved down her neck, and she pulled her shirt just a little downwards to reveal a sparrow tattooed on the right side of her collarbone. "There's more that you can't see…" she told him, thinking of her bellybutton ring and the wings tattooed on her shoulders and ankles.

His eyes traveled down her body curiously. The next thing he knew, her fist connected with his face, sending him flying across the room.

"Fckin' PERVERT!"

His body crashed against the wall. The whole room turned to see what was going on. Momoshiro sat up with difficulty, his nose bleeding. She wasn't sure if she gave him a nosebleed, or he got it because he was thinking perverted thoughts. "God, where did you learn to punch like that?" he asked, rubbing his swelling cheek. He felt like he'd been hit with a sledge hammer.

"You don't want to mess with Suzume," Akane stated plainly. "She's a black belt in Karate."

"I thought you played tennis!" Kikumaru said.

"I've done karate since I was four, and even after I began playing tennis, I still had karate lessons. Good thing too, because it comes in handy defending myself against idiot PERVERTS!" she spat.

The room burst into laughter. "So, Momo's a man after all…" Kikumaru teased.

"I didn't know you had such fetishes, Momo-senpai…" Ryoma said without looking up from his food.

"That's not it, it isn't!" he protested, turning faintly red.

Kimiko giggled. "You _totally _picked the wrong girl! Suzume-chan doesn't even have "boys" in her vocabulary!" She paused, then added thoughtfully: "Unless they're on her "to beat up" list. But the point is, boys are the last thing on Suzume-chan's mind."

Suzume glared at her, and she fell silent.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

It was awkward at their table, Akane thought. Chiharu couldn't seem to say a thing when Tezuka was sitting right next to her. In fact, she hadn't stopped blushing for the past half an hour. She kept yanking on her pigtails and twirling her hair around her finger; habits when she was nervous. '_That girl needs to get a grip on herself_.'

Oishi was saying something about the training menu for girls. Akane directed her attention back to him. "…different for girls…"

Tezuka nodded. "It's true that the training must be altered for the female team, but the effectiveness must be the same. We want to make sure both teams improve at the same rate, even with different training menus."

"It would be difficult, though," Oishi said. "We don't know if the girls are on different levels, how their strength compares, or any information about them… How are we supposed to come up with a training menu?" He looked at Akane. In fact, all of them were looking at her expectantly.

"You're the practical one…" Coach Ryuzaki told her. "Any thoughts?"

'_It always comes down to me, doesn't it?_' She smiled wryly. "When you don't know how to do something, get someone else to do it. I suggest we let Inui take over the menu. Reina has our team's data memorized inside out and backwards, so she could help him. Besides…" She looked over her shoulder at the counter, where the two of them were talking. "They seem to be hitting it off pretty well."

"I'll go tell her." Chiharu offered, getting up.

"No, that's ok," Akane said, a hand over her mouth to hide her smile. "You can stay where you are and enjoy yourself…"

The color of Chiharu's cheeks went from "rose" to "cooked lobster". "I'm going." she repeated, almost defiantly. She got to her feet, wobbling a little. Her vision was fuzzy, but it slowly cleared as oxygen made its way to her head. She took a step to her right.

Perfect timing.

Kawamura was just walking past their table, a tray laden with empty plates upon his arm. She bumped into him, not hard, but enough to surprise him and make him drop the tray. The plates shattered onto the floor, fragments of white porcelain.

"I'm so sorry!" Chiharu made a move as if to help him, but tripped, falling straight for the sea of broken glass. One of her pigtails came undone, blue gray strands fanning out behind her. She didn't dare put out her hands to break her fall, for fear of feeling jagged pain through her palms. Letting out a tiny shriek of terror, she closed her eyes tight.

She fell against something soft and warm.

'_This is strange…_' Her heart was beating loudly in her ears. It was as if she had been enveloped in a warm cocoon. '_It's comforting… and warm… I could stay here forever…_'

Then she realized it wasn't her heartbeat that was beating so loudly.

She looked up at her savior. "T-tezuka-san?" She could _feel _his arms around her! She took a quick step back, and lost her balance, falling backwards, but he caught her on the arm. Akane didn't think her face could've gotten any redder, but at that moment it just did.

"You should be more careful…" His deep voice sent shivers down her spine. In a good way, though.

"H-hai!" '_He caught me!_ _What do I say? What am I supposed to say to him?_' Her thoughts were a blur. "T-thank you, Tezuka-san," she stuttered. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble. I didn't mean to not be careful— no I mean I meant to be careful but I wasn't—I mean…" She tugged on her pigtail frantically; her mouth seemed to be moving on its own, saying completely mixed up things. She wasn't making any sense. "Just… thank you." she whispered, staring at her feet. '_You said that already!_' She sat down, not daring to look at him.

Akane noticed he was gazing at her with an expression that she couldn't describe. There almost seemed to be—god forbid—a _smile _upon his lips? Not quite a smile, but that's about as close an expression to "amused" that you would get from Tezuka.

She turned back to the table. The rest of the restaurant hadn't missed the action, it seemed. All the regulars were snickering behind their hands; Inui's pen was quivering as he jotted down the latest data on Tezuka's facial expressions; Kimiko was filling Momoshiro in with the scoop on Chiharu... She got up. "I guess it's best that _I _go and inform Reina and Inui…"

Chiharu began to rise from her seat, but Akane batted her down.

"Sit. Stay. I think Taka-san would rather keep the rest of his china _intact._"

**xxxxxxxxxx**

'_Before the accident…_'

"See…" Kawamura was saying in English. "The green bit is wasabi; a lot of foreigners don't like the flavor. Too much of it will make your nose feel…" He pinched his nose to demonstrate. "Kind of like when you choke on water." he explained.

Aiko cocked her head to the side, doubtful. "That little green lump will make me feel like I'm choking?"

"Ah… it's a very strong green lump."

She threw her head back and laughed, the beads in her hair rattling together. She wasn't sure if it was the language barrier between them that made his replies so amusing, but talking to him was hilarious. He was laughing too. Her skin was the color of milk chocolate, lighter than most African Americans due to her Japanese heritage, but compared to the skin of most Japanese it was as dark as the night. Before, she always felt like an outsider. People talked about the color of her skin, made fun of her braided hairstyle… This was the first time she felt she was beginning to fit in.

She put the sushi in her mouth and chewed. It tasted sweet, salty, and sour at the same time. She closed her eyes, and the flavors appeared like colors. Some were loud and bright, and others were more subtle. She never imagined so many tastes could be crammed into one little roll.

Suddenly, it felt like she had placed her head underwater and inhaled sharply. It seemed like someone had pinched her nose tightly and wasn't letting go. Her tongue was on fire. She coughed, her eyes watering. Kawamura handed her a glass of water, which she drank gratefully, the sensation subsiding gradually. "I see what you mean. That green lump packs a punch."

"Packs a punch?" he repeated, puzzled.

"It's an American idiom," she explained. "It means it's "very powerful."" She coughed again. Her nose still felt numb.

"Ah… power," He gave her a smile. '_That explains it._' "Gomen, my English isn't that good." He picked up her water glass and refilled it.

"No, no," she said encouragingly when he came back, handing her the glass of water. "Your English is really good! How do you speak it so well?" She chugged down the water.

"Ah… we get a couple foreigners in the restaurant now and then," He looked at the empty glass. A few droplets on the edge of the glass were the only evidence that the cup had been full mere seconds before. "And most of them don't like the taste of wasabi."

She wet her lips, the spicy taste still lingering on her tongue. "It is a weird taste," she admitted. "But I think I like it…"

**xxxxxxxxxx**

(The glass broke then.)

Kawamura began to sweep away the broken pieces of glass, before Kimiko snatched the broom from between his fingers. "I'll do it!" she said cheerfully.

"No… It's ok…." Kawamura said, but the pink headed girl was already brushing the pieces into the dustbin, humming to herself.

Tezuka bowed toward Kawamura's father. "I'm very sorry about all this. We will, of course, reimburse all your costs."

"No, no, it's fine," he replied, scratching his head. He chuckled. "My idiot son breaks so much china that these incidents are quite common. We're always prepared for them."

"Dad… don't say that…" Kawamura protested.

"I'm really, really sorry," Chiharu said again, her head bent with shame. It was bad enough to break the glass of the person _treating_ them, but to have Tezuka have to apologize for her was just _awful_… "You went through the trouble to treat us and all I did was cause trouble. It's all my fault. I'll pay for it, really."

Kawamura's father smiled. "It's fine. We'll take care of it."

"I'm really sorry."

"Thank you for your kindness." Tezuka said. Chiharu murmured one more apology before Akane dragged her down, saying firmly: "That's enough, Chiharu."

She bit her lip. Her eyes were moist, but she managed to keep the tears from falling down her cheeks. "I just… I feel that everywhere I go, I cause trouble for someone."

"You do, senpai." Kimiko said with a happy smile. "But that's why we love you."

That did it. The tears spilled over.

"Oh, lord," Akane brushed the tears away with her fingers, but as soon as she finished more flowed down. "Did you _have_ to turn on the waterworks, Kimiko?" She placed her hands on Chiharu's shoulders. "Come on, get a grip on yourself. Your tears are capable of creating a pond out of nowhere." Everyone knew that Chiharu was easily moved to tears, but this was a little much. The former captain let out a sigh. "You _do _realize you're a third year now, Chiharu. You're not a little girl anymore. You can't go on like this."

The pigtailed girl nodded slowly, sniffling between her words. "I… just can't… help it…sometimes."

Akane smoothed the tears away with her thumbs. '_God, where's a Kleenex when you need one?_' Almost as soon as she thought that thought, a package of tissues was handed to her. "I didn't know I was psychic," she said, accepting them. "Thanks, Tezuka-san."

There was something between his fingers. Taking a moment to identify the object, he then tapped Chiharu on the shoulder. "I believe this is yours." he said, holding out her hair tie.

Chiharu gasped and turned pink again. She took it from between his fingers, her hands shaking so much she nearly dropped it. "Arigato, Tezuka-san…" She slipped the elastic securely over her wrist, just in case it turned into a slingshot and killed everyone. (There was no telling what her clumsiness would get her into.) '_He handed it to me! His fingers touched it!_' Blood pulsing in her ears, she felt obliged to repeat her gratitude. "Arigato…"

He nodded coolly in reply. She nearly fainted.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

"So, a team menu?" Reina adjusted her glasses. Akane had just informed them about her plans.

"It should be rather difficult," Inui smiled, up for the challenge. "And a great opportunity to gather data."

"There's more to people than data, Inui-san."

"That I realize," Inui said. "But people _are _data."

Reina smirked. "That will be proved incorrect as soon as you hear the information I have collected on our team members."

"Data never lies."

There was a sparkle in her eye. "Our team constantly surpasses data. Data would have to be altered every second to maintain its accuracy, considering the pace at which our team improves. A living example: Never have I been able to challenge one member from our team and walk away victorious relying solely on data."

"Oh?" Inui's eyebrows raised, interested. "Do explain."

**xxxxxxxxxx**

"Kawamura." Akane's tone was urgent.

"Yes?" He crouched down next to her. "Do you need anything?"

"Call an ambulance."

"EH?" This was not what he was expecting… at _all_. And the fact that she said it so calmly made it even more possible that he misheard. "What for?"

Akane closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "You put crab in your sushi, right?"

"Yes, some of it. Why? Our ingredients are of very best quality…"

She paused, then suddenly her face contorted in pain. It was then he noticed her pale her face was. Her voice came out in a choked whisper.

"I'm allergic to crab. And my allergies are deadly."

**xxxxxxxxxx**

_Two hours later…_

The atmosphere was tense. It was getting late. The freshmen trio and Tomoka had already been sent home, but Sakuno stayed so she could leave with her grandmother.

Oishi paced the area outside of the hospital room restlessly. Chiharu sat on the bench, sobbing softly into her hands, several people around her attempting to comfort her. Suzume sat on the floor, chewing on the end of a cigarette; she wasn't allowed to light it. Tezuka and Coach Ryuzaki were engaged in conversation with the doctor.

"Akane's going to be fine," their coach announced.

A collective sigh of relief was exhaled in unison. Chiharu was crying harder than ever.

"Senpai! She's going to be all right!" Kimiko said, playing with Chiharu's blue-gray curls. "You can turn off the faucets you call tear glands now."

A choked sound of laughter broke through her tears. '_They're right. I need to put myself together."_ She glanced at Tezuka. He was still talking to the coach, and seemed to not have noticed her current state.

"Chiharu's a very emotional person," Reina said to Inui. "She is physically aware of everything and anything; occasionally in quantities almost too great for her mental capacity…" She paused so he would be able to write it all down.

"Through her five senses?" he inquired, his eyes still on his notebook and his hand still writing.

"Not only pertaining to her senses. The tactility of an object serves to aggrandize her senses."

"An instinctive sense, perhaps?"

"No, it—"

"Oshiro-san?" A nurse's eyes lit up in recognition. "How have you been? I don't have you scheduled for tests today, since your visit was unexpected," She smiled. "But we can run a few anyway."

Everyone looked at Chiharu.

"Ano…" Chiharu looked embarrassed. "Not today, thank you. I'm just here with a friend…"

"What tests?" "Are you sick?" "You come here often?" "The staff knows you?" "What do you need to be checked up on?" She was bombarded with questions from the team. Her face turned red again, and she tried to make herself look as small as possible.

"Silence!" Tezuka commanded.

It was then silent. Everyone left Chiharu alone.

"It is only one of the many reasons her tennis style is so particularly _unique_." Reina continued. "Analytical skills and data are constantly proven ineffective; nothing short of a miracle serves as an explanation for her tennis style."

**xxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi left the waiting room after hearing the news; heading for outside. The rest of the team watched her; it was rude to leave before speaking to the injured member and wishing them a quick recovery. Through the transparent glass doors, they watched as she sat on the steps of the hospital. Strange. What was the difference between waiting there and waiting in the room?

She put her chin on her knees. The air was warm; one of those typical spring evenings with starry skies and a gentle breeze rustling the trees. Long, black strands of hair tangled themselves, and she ran her fingers between the strands to smooth them, slightly regretting her choice to get them layered. The longest strands were so long, she could sit on them. She did so, anchoring some her hair to the ground. After the nurse had seen Chiharu, she didn't want to risk being recognized. Her hands tightened around her legs as she pulled herself closer together.

"You left quickly." Fuji commented as he sat down beside her. A shiver ran down her spine when she heard his voice.

"I needed some fresh air," Her response was impulsive and slightly defensive. She suspected that he didn't believe her, and expected him to question her further, but he was quiet and thoughtful. Gentle gusts of wind tangled the shorter strands of her hair; the scent of flowers weaved within them. How lucky the wind was! Wild, free, uncontrolled… with no real shape and no need to have one… Sometimes she wished she _was _the wind…

"I don't like hospitals…" she suddenly said. Izumi had no idea why she just confessed this.

He nodded thoughtfully. The question '_why_' must have lingered upon his tongue, but he asked for no explanation and she did not give one. Perhaps he was more considerate than she gave him credit for.

It was in the tone of her voice, he decided. Even though he wanted to know why she didn't like hospitals, he refrained from asking. The tone of her voice told him that she didn't want to tell.

"Fuji-san, why do you play tennis?"

"Ah?" The question was unexpected. She wasn't looking at him, but her head was cocked slightly to the side, awaiting his answer.

He took his time pondering the question, but she waited patiently. He chucked slightly. "I guess my answer is that I haven't found it yet. For me, tennis is little more than an exciting game I choose to play." His blue eyes found hers and saw a shadow of disappointment. "Were you expecting something more philosophical? If there is a deeper meaning to tennis, I am currently searching for it."

She nodded. '_But is there a deeper meaning to tennis?_'

He blinked his eyes; the blue of them clouded from thought. Three years in the same class, and they have never spoken like this. In fact, she rarely spoke at all. This conversation was longer than the little snippets of dialogue between them for the past three years _put together._ Why didn't they talk more often? She was always silent and indifferent, or so it seemed.

He was curious about her. Confessing her dislike of hospitals was perhaps the most personal thing she had ever shared. He wondered why she disliked hospitals so much. Thinking back, he was quite sure that all her family members were in good health. She was an only child, he remembered.

"They hate me now, don't they?" she questioned quietly. "The rest of the team?"

"No," he replied simply. "Why would you think that?"

"I left early."

"They are confused, yes. But no one would hate you for that." '_She seems to think everything was more than it actually is…_'

"It doesn't matter," She watched a ladybug crawl around on a blade of grass. As the wind blew, the grass swayed dangerously, and the ladybug almost fell. "Akane already hates me. She's never liked me. Ever since I quit…" She stopped. '_What is wrong with me?_' She was revealing her secrets and innermost thoughts, one by one, to someone who might as well be a stranger.

Was it the way he listened? Unquestioning her motives, her actions? Or was it his eyes? When she looked into them, she felt she could unearth the darkest and most unforgivable secrets chained to her soul, and he would accept them. Either way, it was dangerous.

She pressed her lips together and stood. "I'm going back inside." Her steps were quick as she practically ran into the building. She needed some space.

Fuji's eyes followed her, observing her curiously. She wasn't as cold and hostile as others made her out to be. Yet every time she seemed to open up a bit, she caught herself and clammed up again. What was she so afraid of?

**xxxxxxxxxx**

Suzume bit onto the end of her cigarette and sucked. Oishi looked at her and told her for the third time, "You really shouldn't smoke. It's bad for your health."

"I didn't light it, did I?"

She was irritated. Chiharu was stressing herself out over something already _solved_. A couple glances in her direction, and she realized that Chiharu had stopped crying, though was still staring at the door worriedly; it was obvious she was anxious to check on Akane. '_Senpai really cares about her…_' Suzume smiled slightly. '_Then again, senpai cares about everyone…_'

"So why do you smoke?" Momoshiro asked her, seating himself next to her.

She gave him a bored expression. "It's something to do…?"

"It's stupid."

She shrugged.

"Cigarettes and any other drugs are prohibited on the tennis courts." Tezuka reminded her.

"Well, duh, they aren't even allowed at school, what do you expect?"

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu interrupted softly. "You shouldn't talk to Tezuka-san like that. He's not only your senpai, but your captain now. It's disrespectful on both counts."

"Hai, senpai." Suzume looked at Chiharu and noted that the tear streaks on her cheeks were fading, although she was still sniffling slightly. She turned back to Tezuka. "Gomen, buzhou. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful, I was just in a bad mood."

Tezuka nodded curtly. Momoshiro's mouth dropped.

"Wait, that's it? No laps? So unfair…"

"Lucky me." Her reply was tinged with sarcasm. The cigarette between her teeth shifted up and down as she talked.

Chiharu crouched down on the floor next to her and removed the cigarette from her mouth. Momoshiro shruddered. '_If I tried to do that she would bite my fingers off._' Suzume just cast her eyes downwards and exhaled with an air of annoyance.

'_How come she changes attitudes whenever Chiharu does something?_'

**xxxxxxxxxx**

She was a mess. Akane knew it, even though there was no mirror in the room. She couldn't even open her eyes fully; they were swollen shut. Her ginger hair was plastered to her head with sweat. '_Stupid allergies…_' She cursed at herself inwardly for not checking that bit of sushi. Normally she was very careful and made sure nothing she ate would trigger her allergies, but somehow she missed one piece. And one piece could mean the difference between life and death.

Shadows were darting in front of her eyes. "Who's there?" she croaked. Her throat was raw and aching from the stomach pump.

"Ah, Akane-san?" someone said.

"We've been waiting for you to wake up." another voice said.

Eyes narrowed to slits, she tried to make out the blurry eyes in front of them. Coach Ryuzaki, Tezuka, and someone currently opening the doors. As he turned to face her, she realized it was Oishi. "What time is it?" she rasped.

"Nearly midnight," Tezuka replied. She couldn't see him well but with his voice it was unmistakable.

Suddenly a crowd of people gathered around them. Akane didn't need to see to know that Oishi had just let everyone in.

A flash of magenta pink caught her eye. "Akane-buzhou, Akane-buzhou! How are you feeling?" Kimiko bounced to her side.

"You had us all worried sick, senpai," Sayaka commented. "Sheesh…"

"Some more than others." Suzume said with a glance towards the back of the room.

The crowd parted slightly to reveal Chiharu, nose red and eyes puffy from crying. The sight of Akane made her burst into tears again. She rushed forward and flung her arms around her friend, her tears staining the sheets.

"Chiharu…" Akane chucked slightly, wincing as her throat burned. "So this is how I'm going to die. Drowned in my best friend's tears." Her wry humor made everyone smile.

"Ano…" Sakuno stepped forward shyly, holding a bouquet of red carnations. Some of the petals were slightly crushed. "Um… we got these for you, senpai. Sorry. They were the only ones left at the store."

"Thank you," she replied, touched. Sakuno placed them on the tiny table next to her bed.

Kawamura's father stepped forward. "We apologize for not mentioning beforehand our ingredients. Your hospital fees will be covered by us."

"It's all right," She smiled and nodded towards Chiharu, referring to the incident with the breaking china. "Let's just call it even."

"Ah… thank you."

"Wait," she suddenly choked out. "It's MIDNIGHT! What are you guys still doing here?"

"Well…" Kikumaru scratched his head. "We wanted to make sure you were ok, nya…"

They all nodded simultaneously in emphasis.

Her vision became more blurred as her eyes filled with tears. "You waited for me to wake up? You guys… that's so sweet…"

"Oh my god," Momoshiro said in horror. "Don't _you_ start crying…"

"Chiharu-san is enough. Japan doesn't need any more lakes…" Fuji said.

Briskly, she brushed the tears away. "You guys should go home!" She coughed a couple times. "Practice starts tomorrow! Get some rest!"

"Reina and I are in final stages of preparing the menu. The training will indeed help both teams prepare for the upcoming tournament." Inui mentioned, looking pleased with himself. His smile seemed almost sadistic. Everyone fell a chill sweep through the room as they tried to imagine what the training tomorrow would be like.

"Good. I'll look at it during lunch tomorrow."

"Huh?" Kawamura gave her a confused look. "Are we coming to the hospital for lunch?"

"No. I'll be back in school tomorrow." she said matter-of-factly.

"EH?"

"Akane-san, that's not possible!" Oishi cried. "You can't insist on going back with your health in this state! It'll be dangerous for you!"

Reina cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "The ramification of Akane's allergic reaction is expeditious, yet the acceleration of her recuperation is also of great celerity, if expulsion of the intrusive allergen is proximate to consumption," she said. "As we may observe, the symptoms of atopy from the allergens are deterring in her facial features."

Everyone gave her blank stares.

"Does anyone want to translate that?" Sayaka said.

Akane laughed hoarsely, then coughed again. "My allergies take effect quickly, but my recovery is just as fast, as long as they get rid of the crab ASAP. See, the swelling of my eyes is already starting to subside." She winked.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT?" Momoshiro bellowed at Reina.

"I did!" She looked hurt. "I cannot control my need to speak with precision, therefore this is in which the manner I speak."

He groaned.

"Even Inui-senpai's better than that. We can_ at least_ understand him when he speaks…" Ryoma muttered. "_Most _ofthe time…"

Inui twitched.

"Oi, you two…" Oishi said. "That's no way to talk to your senpais."

"Momoshiro and Echizen," Tezuka said, without even looking at them. "Ten extra laps at the end of tomorrow."

"What? But that-" They stopped short of complaining, in fear he would raise the number higher. They sighed in unison. "Hai, hai…"

"Still," Oishi insisted. "It's dangerous if you try to play tennis after having such a large allergy attack!"

She waved his concern away. "I'll be fine, no worries." Her voice was still as raspy as ever. When he pointed this out, she replied, "It's just from the stomach pump. What, you expect after having a tube shoved down your throat, you'd still be able to sing like a nightingale? I'm fine. You should all go home."

"Akane's right. We should leave." Suzume agreed. "If it's even possible to get a taxi at midnight." Her cell phone beeped again, and she glanced at the message displayed on the tiny screen. "My brothers are getting worried."

"Okay, then we have to figure this out," Coach Ryuzaki said. "How many of you live to the south of the school? I'm looking for a show of hands."

Oishi, Tezuka, Kaidoh, Momoshiro, and Ryoma raised their hands, as did Sayaka, Chiharu, Suzume, Aiko, and Sakuno. Kikumaru began to raise his, but suddenly brought it down.

"Whoa, that's a lot…" Coach Ryuzaki said in surprise. She had hoped that the amount of students in the north district area and the students in the south were more or less equal. That way it'd be easier taking them all home.

"I'll ride my bike," Momoshiro offered. "Echizen, need a ride?"

"Hey! I don't get a ride back?" Sayaka exclaimed.

"Oops, I forgot…"

"Thank you so much for thinking of me, though." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Oi! You usually don't come with me to school anyways!" he said in defense.

"Well that's because Mom only bought ONE bike, and guess who got _that_ privilege!"

"Why don't you just cartwheel home or something?"

While the siblings were bickering, Oishi turned to Kikumaru. "Eiji, don't you live in the south as well?"

"Hee hee, I live on the borderline between north and south!" he replied, waggling a finger at him. "It'll be easier for everyone if I go with the people going to the north district."

"Momoshiro and Echizen can take Momoshiro's bike back," Coach Ryuzaki said, trying to get this organized. "Sayaka, Kaidoh, and Suzume, you can hitch a ride in my car. I'll have to make another trip to pick up the rest of you though. Sakuno, you come too."

"Let Aiko-senpai go first," Suzume said. "I live in the same apartment as Chiharu-senpai, so you can drop both of us off and save some time."

"You two are neighbors?" Coach Ryuzaki said curiously. "That's a coincidence."

"Yeah," she replied. "I live one floor above her."

"I feel sorry for Chiharu…" Momoshiro muttered under his breath. When Suzume turned to glare at him he took a few frightened steps back, even though she could only glare with one eye.

"Let's go, then." The six of them said their farewells and told Akane to feel better, before piling in Ryuzaku-sensei's car (Or on Momoshiro's bike, in Ryoma's case) and left.

"My dad can drive some of us back," Kawamura told them. "I'm guessing the rest of you live towards the north? Our sushi shop is closer to that area."

Kikumaru and Inui nodded. Reina, Izumi and Kimiko also did.

"My sister is picking me up," Fuji said. "I can send some of you home."

"Oh, thank you, Fuji!" Kikumaru said.

Kimiko had bought a strawberry lollipop from the gift shop and was sucking on it. She pulled it from her mouth with a '_pop_!' "So how are the rest of us going to decide which car we're going in?"

"I'd like to go with Watanabe-san, to finish the team menu." Inui said. "We'll take Kawamura's van."

"I want to see the menu too!" Kimiko whined. "I'm coming with you!"

"Then I'm hitching a ride with Fujiko." Kikumaru decided.

"Don't you have eight hundred siblings or something?" Suzume asked. "I remember reading your profile. Why can't they pick you up?"

"Nya, I have four older siblings! I'm the youngest! I also live with my grandparents!" he announced cheerfully.

"I didn't ask for your entire family tree." Suzume muttered, trying to make her voice just loud enough so he could hear. Unfortunately for her, he didn't.

"My elder siblings are my two sisters, and two brothers! Their age order is my eldest sister, my eldest brother, my second eldest brother, and my second eldest sister. Now come to think of it…" He looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Why can't they pick me up? My eldest sister and brother both have driver licenses! Hmm… but they're probably asleep anyways, so no matter!"

Suzume felt like banging her head against a wall. '_So pointless…_'

Izumi felt trapped. She couldn't exactly say she wanted to go with Taka-san, as his van should be full with him, his dad, Inui, Reina and Kimiko. It'd be too much trouble for them anyways. She said nothing.

"Morioka-chan, you can come with us!" Kikumaru enthused. "Right, Fujiko?"

"Sure." Fuji smiled.

"Fine… Thanks…" Luck was not smiling upon her. Why did she always get stuck with Fuji? Not that she _minded_ it completely… but she…_changed_ when she was around him, and it scared her.

They said their goodbyes to Akane, and walked outside. A red car was parked there. "Syusuke!" A girl waved. She was very pretty; the few guys in the parking lot at this hour were all eyeing her.

"Ah, Nee-san!" He led them to her. "Nee-san, you know Eiji. This is Morioka Izumi, a girl from my class. Morioka-san, this is my sister, Yumiko… You don't mind driving them home, do you?"

"Of course not! Nice to meet you!" Yumiko shook her hand warmly. She smiled sweetly. "It's the first time Syusuke offered to give a girl a lift home."

Izumi stiffened.

"Nee-san, it's not like that," Fuji explained. "Izumi-san is a regular on our girl team."

"Oh, are you on a first name basis already?" Yumiko smiled as opened the door to the driver's seat and got in. "Sounds a little like _that_ to me…"

"Yumiko-san, can I _please_ sit in the front?" Kikumaru pleaded.

"Sure!" she said. "You can help me navigate."

"Yahoo!" He jumped into the car with such enthusiasm that he practically tipped it over.

There was an awkward pause as the other two made no move to enter the vehicle. Fuji turned to face Izumi. "Sorry about that…"

She nodded and looked to the side. The faintest of blushes crept across her cheeks. "Don't mention it…"

Silently, he opened the door for her. She got in without looking at him. He followed suit. '_How could one comment change the whole air?_' The car sped off into the night.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

_In Car 1…_

"So, Aiko-senpai…" Sayaka attempted to start a conversation as the car whisked down the dark street; she was proud to say her English skills were better than her brother's, "You were kind of quiet at the hospital. Anything wrong?"

"No…" The dark-skinned girl had a sad smile on. "My Japanese is so bad, so when you and your friends talk, I can't even understand, so joining in your conversations wouldn't be possible…"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sayaka said, feeling a bit of remorse. Imagine if she was trapped in a foreign country with no one to help her! "We should've translated for you. I'm sorry."

Aiko's smile still seemed sad. By ignoring her, they may have done more damage than it seemed, Sayaka realized. "It's fine. I'm learning…"

"We were just so concerned about our friend…" She attempted to explain.

"Um…yeah, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to her?"

If Sayaka felt remorse before, now she was flooding with it. It made her heart ache to know that Aiko was just left there, being neglected, wanting to know what chaos was going on yet no one offering to tell her.

"She had an allergy attack. I'm so sorry for not…"

"It's fine," Aiko forced a chuckle. "You're starting to sound like that blue-gray haired girl."

"Blue-gray hair?" she echoed aloud. "Oh, you must mean Chiharu-senpai. Haha, yeah, I am starting to sound like her."

Aiko looked out the window. Maybe she was too hopeful in thinking she was beginning to fit in.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

_Car 2…_

Kimiko had regretted taking the ride with Inui-senpai and Watanabe-senpai. She couldn't understand anything they were saying. It seemed like they were speaking in a foreign language! Not to mention when she peeked over their shoulders to catch a glimpse of the team menu, it was filled with notations and formulas about things like velocity and air resistance. She sighed, wishing that she hadn't slept through physics for the past 3 years. Now she had to bear with it for the whole ride, and she wouldn't even figure out what torture they would put the team through tomorrow.

She heard her name being said, and both of them turned around to look at her. Reina then proceeded to say something in her "foreign language" and Inui nodded. It didn't sound good. Simultaneously, a sadistic smile crept over both their faces.

It definitely wasn't good.

Kimiko gulped, nearly swallowing all of her lollipop and choking to death.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

_Back at the hospital…_

"Ryuzaki-sensei will be here in five minutes," Oishi informed them after consulting a message on his cell phone. "We should get ready to leave."

Chiharu squeezed Akane's hand. "I'll see you tomorrow. Get some rest, okay?"

Oishi nodded. "If you don't feel well, please don't bother coming to school."

"Nonsense. I feel better already," she replied. And she did look better. The swelling of her face had reduced significantly.

"I forbid you to push yourself." Tezuka commanded. Akane knew this was his 'iceberg' way of expressing care, and she smiled.

"Thanks."

They waved goodbye, leaving the room. Chiharu began sniffling instantly.

"Oshiro-san…" Oishi said helplessly. "Don't cry."

"I'm not going to cry." she stated. Just as she said the words, two tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Oh, dear lord," Oishi fished in his pocket for a tissue and handed it to her. "She'll be in school tomorrow. Stop worrying." Of course, he himself was no exception. He'd feel better if Akane stayed in the hospital. So who was he to tell her to stop worrying?

Chiharu sniffled into her tissue. '_Why can't I just control my emotions? This is embarrassing…_' "I just hate the thought of leaving her when she's ill. I can't do anything about it…"

Suzume punched her arm lightly. Though she was younger than Chiharu by a year, she was quite a bit taller. "Senpai, worrying won't help anything. We should just relax and go home."

They entered the car; Oishi in the front; Tezuka, Chiharu, and Suzume in the back in that order. Normally Tezuka would sit next to the driver's seat, but today he let Oishi have that privilege, mostly because Oishi knew his way around the district better than he did. Mostly because of that.

"It's too dark. Navigation should be handed to the most reliable person," he said. "We mustn't let our guard down."

The ride was uneventful. They were all tired, and didn't talk. Chiharu closed her eyes, half-asleep. Several times the car would drive over a bump and she would be jolted awake, but soon she was breathing evenly, in a deep slumber.

Tezuka felt a warm weight on his shoulder. He turned to inspect it. Chiharu had fallen asleep, leaning against his shoulder. He shifted slightly, but she did not awaken. He decided to leave it be. She looked so serene, so innocent…

When they reached Suzume and Chiharu's apartment, Suzume poked her. "Senpai…senpai… we're here!" Chiharu didn't move. She jiggled her. No success. "All that crying must have worn her out." Suzume concluded, letting out an exasperated sigh. Her expression was that of fondness, though. "I'll carry her up."

Instead, Tezuka opened the door and picked her up easily, bridal style, as if she were as light as a feather, surprising all of them. "Which floor?" he questioned quietly.

"Second." She led the way to the right building, but they didn't need to climb upstairs. Someone was waiting for her downstairs.

"Nii-san!" she said, surprised. And the last thing they expected Suzume to do happened; she leaped into his arms and he hugged her tight.

When he put her down, she introduced him to Tezuka. "This is my brother, Kai. Kai, this is our tennis team captain, Tezuka-buzhou."

Kai nodded in acknowledgment, noticing that Tezuka wasn't quite able to shake hands. "I've heard about you. Nice to meet you." He held out his arms. "I'll take her."

Chiharu stirred slightly when she was being transferred into Kai's arms, but didn't awaken.

Suzume looked at her brother. "So where is Ren-nii anyways?"

Suddenly, someone grabbed Tezuka by the scruff of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. Tezuka grunted from pain, sparks dancing before his eyes. He didn't even try to fight back; it seemed wrong.

"What did you do to her? What did you do to Oshiro-chan?" A voice demanded. When his vision cleared, Tezuka found himself staring into the eyes of… Kai? That didn't make sense. Kai had his arms full with Chiharu, unless he threw her at Suzume in the last second. Which made even less sense, since then he would've seen it coming.

"Well, there he is." Kai's voice said.

"Ren!" Suzume protested. "Let him go! He didn't do anything to Chiharu-senpai!"

The person immediately let go of Tezuka and ran to Suzume, scooping her up in his arms. "Are you ok?" he asked when he put her down and spun her a couple times, inspecting her.

"You should apologize, Ren." Kai told him.

Suzume introduced Ren to Tezuka. "My other brother."

Ren shook hands with Tezuka. "Sorry for attacking you. I thought something happened to Oshiro-chan, so I acted out of instinct…" He laughed embarrassedly. "I'm the older twin brother of Suzume's."

"By one minute and thirty seconds…" Kai said.

"So? I'm still older!"

"If you don't mind me asking…" Tezuka interrupted (politely but coolly). "What is your relationship with Oshiro-san?"

Both of them smiled. Ren reached over to smooth a lock of blue-gray hair away from her face. They said in unison, "She's our honorary little sister."

"Chiharu's an only child, and we just feel the need to look after her sometimes." Kai explained.

"I see." Tezuka replied. '_So that's why they were so protective of her…_' For some reason, he felt… relieved. "I'll be leaving now. Good night."

As he departed, Ren and Kai looked at Suzume expectantly. "So that was the famous Tezuka Kunimitsu?"

She smiled. "Yes, it was. You think he's good enough for Chiharu-senpai?"

They glanced at his retreating form, then back at the sleeping Chiharu in Kai's arms. "We'll see."

It was a tiresome day, with too many unexpected events, too many accidents. Who knew, an innocent dinner at a sushi restaurant turned into a visit to the hospital emergency room. But as Shakespeare said, "All's well that ends well," and all team members were quite satisfied when they were tucked into bed. All was well.

Until they found out the brutality of the training menu the next day.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Four

**A/N: **

This chapter is dedicated to my southpaw table tennis doubles partner, who went to Thailand the year of the tsunami and never came back. I stopped playing ping-pong for several years because of that, but now I have taken it up again. I know he's watching me.

No idea, when I'll be updating. School and model united nations are taking over my life.


	5. One Team

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Prince of Tennis, just the OCs in the story.

Hey guys, I haven't _quite_ disappeared from the face of the earth yet. Just too much school, M.U.N, and ping pong, and more. XDD For all you people that haven't heard, **KONOMI-SAN IS CONTINUING PRINCE OF TENNIS INTO AN ALL NEW SERIES, DEBUTING IN MARCH/APRIL!** Apparently everything in the series so far was "prologue". You know, that's one hell long of a prologue; if he makes an epilogue I'm not watching it.

This chapter was written for me… mostly. I was trying to get IN the character of my OCs, and practicing and experimenting with their personalities. But enjoy. XD

To Catch a Falling Star—Chapter Five: One Team

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Saaayaka-chaaan!"

"Hmm? Ah!" She yelped as she was jumped on again. "Kikumaru-senpai, that hurts!" Just her luck, she had to meet him on the way to school. His weight added to the several tons of textbooks in her bag; she could already feel her shoulders bruising from the schoolbag's pressure on them.

"Hee hee," He ran in front of her and stuck his tongue out with one eye closed. "We're going to be late!"

"Eh? No way!" She glanced at her watch in panic. Sure enough, they had about two minutes to get to school. Her legs increased her running pace frantically. "Crap! I knew I should've made Mom give the bike to me!"

He winked. "Just make sure you aren't EVER late for tennis practice. It's worse than being late for school."

"Really?" she asked curiously, panting from the sprinting speed they were running at. "How so?"

"Curiosity killed the cat, nya," he chided. "Believe me, you don't want to know."

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

She carefully combed her red hair so half of it covered the left side of her face. She made sure there was more hair there; that way the weight of the hair would make sure it would secure it over her face. Having her hair fly up during intense practice was a risk she didn't want to take; she didn't want the left side of her face revealed.

"Suzume!" She heard Kai call her. "Breakfast!"

Yawning, she staggered down the stairs and sat in her usual spot. Her brother smiled at her as he flipped an omelet up to nearly the ceiling, before letting it land perfectly onto the plate before her.

"You could be in the circus," she commented, half-sarcastically. "Why waste your time being a chef?" She took a few bites, her eyes widening at the delightful sensation her taste buds experienced. "Scratch that."

"If I'm lucky, the restaurant will promote me to head chef within the next month," her brother told her as he scrubbed the pan. "Then I'd be able to upgrade the kitchen to at least four stars…"

"Kai! Where's my breakfast?" Ren said as he walked in the door, still in his karate robes. His black hair was messy.

"On the table," Kai said without looking up.

"I can't believe this whole getting up at five a.m to train all those students," Ren said as he gobbled down his food with lightning speed. "All those goody pupils arrive at the dojo at four thirty. It's a pain."

"It's tradition," Kai said, turning on the faucet to rinse the soapsuds away.

"Traditions like these should be renewed," Ren grumbled.

Kai turned off the faucet, even though he didn't finish rinsing the pan yet. "It's the least you can do…" he said quietly. "In memory of Father…"

There was a long silence.

"I know," Ren said at last. They both looked at Suzume in concern.

Suzume ignored them and swallowed the last of her omelet, picking up her bag from the floor. "I'm off. Oh, by the way, I'm going to be coming home late today. Tennis practice."

"I'll pick you up?" Kai offered.

"No need." she said over her shoulder and shut the door behind her.

Silence followed her departure.

"Kai, you worry too much." Ren slapped him on the back.

"Shut up. Don't even try telling me you weren't worried sick yesterday."

"I wasn't really!"

"So much that you attacked her senpai, and Chiharu's _crush_, without thinking."

"Okay, fine," He stared at the circle of blue sky showing through the window. "But it was nearly 1 a.m., she still wasn't home and neither was Chiharu, what were we supposed to think?" He sighed. "I think it's the age difference that does it. We're eight years older than her. It's natural that we feel the need to take the place of Father."

"Yeah…"

The twins stared into space as they thought about it.

"I think I'll go pick her up anyways." Kai decided. "I have a few things to say to Tezuka Kunimitsu…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

'_The last thing Mom told me was that my hair looked cute in pigtails.'_

Chiharu finished arranging her hair into her usual style. Akane had asked her when she would outgrow wearing her hair like that, and she had said "never", although after seeing that first year ('_What was her name? Tomo-something?')_ have a similar style, she began wondering if it was too childish for her. Yet she knew she would be unable to change it.

She adjusted the blue-gray curls that made up her bangs before the small mirror on her desk, next to a picture of her mother. It had been thirteen years since cancer had taken her life.

The house was quiet. Her father was probably outside. He always got up early to watch the clouds. '_Maybe it connects him to Mom…_' she thought as she heated some porridge over the stove and ate it quickly. She left a bowl for her father as well. Then she slung her bag over her shoulder and opened the door.

"You're already leaving?" Her father came in through the back door.

"Ah…En…" She nodded.

He walked over and hugged her to his chest, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Come home safe, okay?"

"I will," she promised when he let go. "Don't work too hard, Daddy."

She waved at him as she walked towards the elevators. Suzume was waiting for her there, as usual. "Morning, Chiharu-senpai." Chiharu wrinkled her nose and located the source of the smell; the cigarette between her fingers was giving of smoke.

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu snatched the cigarette and snuffed it between her fingers before tossing it into the trashcan. "Really, you should quit."

Suzume just tossed her head in an irritated manner.

Chiharu watched her. She, of all people, had managed to connect to Suzume. She had shared Suzume's pain of losing a parent. She had been taken in as an honorary family member by Suzume's brothers' out of gratitude. She was one of the very few that had gained the respect of Suzume. Yet she had never managed to get Suzume to quit smoking.

'_People seem to think it's weird that we're friends…_' she thought with a smile. '_People don't know what we've been through…_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi was up early. She was always up early.

She opened the window and let the morning breeze caress her face. The crisp morning air was something she loved. Somehow, it always seemed to give her the promise that she could start anew.

There was a bird nest on the tree next to her window. She watched the two sparrows chirp at each other and imagined them arguing about who's turn it was to sit on the eggs. That made her smile.

Kaidoh always passed under her window at around this time, doing his morning jog (or in his case, marathon) around the city. She never called out to him, but usually he would look up and she would give him a tiny wave, which he responded with a nod. It had become part of their daily routine.

She looked forward to this. Perhaps it indicated to her, that even in the times she felt like everything was over, that life had to move on.

They never spoke at school before, not even when she was part of the girls' tennis club. Before, the tennis clubs of the boys and girls were separated clearly, since the boys' club actually had a team that competed, whereas the girls' club existed for recreational purposes only. Although she had been at the same school for many of the people in the team, for some of them it was their first meeting, especially second years. She wasn't even aware that Momoshiro existed until a few days ago.

Kaidoh was different, though. Maybe it was this simple gesture that bonded them somehow, and she felt she understood him, even if they had never spoken. She had often seen him running in the morning, usually whenever she went to open her window. His determination was something she admired… and something she feared she lacked.

'_Tennis practice today…_' she thought to herself. '_Who would've thought… I'd take up tennis again?_' She stared at the pile of test papers on her desk. Her own was covered in notes and corrections she'd written on solving the problems. For an instant she wondered if the extra tennis practices would affect her grades. She had tried so hard to reach the top, only to fail over and over, and inch from her goal. There couldn't be that many more midterms and finals before graduation. Perhaps she wasn't meant to stand at the top of the academic rankings. Maybe tennis wasn't such a good idea.

'_Forget it. It's about time I started pouring my heart and soul into something._' She looked into her mirror. Her reflection stared back, and it frightened her. The girl in the mirror was posing a question:

'…_Again?_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ito-san!"

Akane closed her locker and turned to the sound of the voice. "Ah, Oishi-kun," she said. "Ohayo." Her bangs were starting to bother her; they were tickling her eyes, so she put a pink elastic headband on her forehead as she spoke, maneuvering some of the ginger hair out of her blue eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked immediately, concerned.

"I'm at school, aren't I?" She smiled wryly. "Doesn't that speak for itself?"

"Ah… well… don't push yourself…"

"Do you see any swellings or hear any rasp in my voice?"

He tilted his head. "No… you look and sound fine…"

"Then," She smiled again. "What are you worrying about?"

"Eh…?" That caught him. His cheeks turned slightly red. "Uh, that is…"

Just then, the bell rang. "Oh! I have to get to chemistry! See you during lunch, Oishi-kun!" she said, half running down the hall. She disappeared around the corner, leaving him and his thoughts.

'_Wow… she's almost…_ manipulative… _in her way of words_…' he thought. '_Wonder if that's related to her tennis style in any way._'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

(_Later that afternoon…)_

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Now we will begin training!" Tezuka commanded. Everyone stopped talking and gathered around him. "As usual, we will start with 30 laps for warm up." He turned to Akane, who was standing beside him along with Oishi. "Girl regulars, 22 laps."

"I guess they altered it so it would be fairer."Sayaka said.

Suzume rested her racket on her own shoulder. "I don't mind 30 laps, actually." she said in a bored tone.

"With the relative calculation of the ratio, both male and female regulars should finish at the same time," Inui stated. "Which means…"

All the male regulars froze, expressions of dread adorning their faces.

Inui magically pulled out a pitcher of green juice from behind his back. "This will be waiting for the loser…"

"GAAAAH!" The male regulars took off immediately, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. The girls just stared after them in confusion, before running after them.

"Are we supposed to be scared?" Suzume said scornfully as they caught up. "It's a _drink_."

"Hmph. Why don't you try it then? You'll get your chance when you lose!" Momoshiro called, taunting her.

"In your dreams, idiot!" Suzume yelled as she increased her speed so it matched his. She was never one to ignore the bait.

"Actually, it tastes pretty good," Fuji commented. "I recommend it."

"Really?" Sayaka asked. "Then you guys are running like hell because…"

"NO! That's just mean, Fuji! So deceptive!" Kikumaru whined. "Sayaka-chan, don't listen to Fuji! He's not normal! He's immune to Inui Juice! Trust me…" His expression was a queasy one as he remembered the taste. "One taste and you're taste buds will be launched into hell…"

"He's right." Oishi confirmed.

"Ah, Oishi-senpai…"

Oishi's eyes were wide and full of fear. "I didn't know hell until I tried Inui Juice…"

"I believe you, I believe you!" Sayaka felt a newborn fear toward the drink she had never tasted. Their expressions were what convinced her.

"Ne, Fuji-senpai?" Kimiko asked. "Why are you running so hard then, if you actually enjoy drinking it?"

Fuji kept his smiling face on. "I enjoy watching people suffer even more…"

Kimiko shivered and ran a few paces away. "That's a more sadistic smile than Reina-senpai's ever had!"

Reina ignored her and pulled a notepad from her pocket, flipping through it before stopping at a page marked with a scribbled drawing of Inui. "If everyone were to personally experience the piquancy of the liquid, proliferation of the efficaciousness of actuating the Juice as a motivator would be 99%." She proclaimed.

Nearly all the regulars sweatdropped.

"Translation, please?"

"Hmm…" Inui murmured thoughtfully. "So using the Juice as motivation would be 99% more effective if everyone tried it at least once," His glasses glinted evilly. "That can be arranged…"

"EHH?" Kimiko cried. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM THAT? WHY, REINA-SENPAI? WHY?"

"Why not?" Chiharu asked, completely innocent. "It would be a new experience."

"If you manage to survive it." Akane said through gritted teeth. "Only those with a death wish would try Inui Juice willingly."

"Fshhhhhhhh….." Kaidoh hissed in agreement.

"So you tried it then, Akane?" Izumi finally asked after staying silent for the beginning of the run.

"No." Akane answered bluntly.

Several people fell to the ground, anime-style.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU SAYING SO MUCH?"

"Reina was an unfortunate victim of the Juice." Akane stated, as if this explained it all. When all she got were blank stares, she elaborated, "She wouldn't stop analyzing its taste and effects for at least a week. And being one of the few people that understand her, I was forced to learn the danger of it."

Kawamura translated and explained everything to Aiko, and she made gave him a questioning look. "But, it's still made from vegetables right? How bad can _food_ taste, if it's still food?"

"That's what I thought at first," Kawamura confessed. "Being a chef-in-training, I was sure food could only taste so bad… But," He stared at the pitcher waiting on the table next to where Coach Ryuzaki was standing and gulped. "Inui has changed my beliefs."

"Okaay…" Aiko said uneasily. "I'm not losing this race, then."

"Your pace is dropping!" Tezuka's voice came from the front. "We have 8 more laps than the girls! If you match your pace with theirs you will not be able to finish!"

As he said those words, everyone, even the girls, felt the need to increase their speed. That was just like him, no commands, no orders; simply stating the facts and implying what they should do. It was the power of his voice that instituted the command.

Sakuno was panting hard. '_Compared to everyone else… I'm weak. I can't keep up for much longer. I feel so tired._' She wiped the sweat from her brow, feeling herself fall behind, bit by bit. '_I won't give up! But… it would be embarrassing for me to come in last…_'

"You move your arms too much," a voice came from next to her.

She swiveled her head. "Ryoma-kun!" A blush crept over her cheeks immediately.

He wasn't looking at her; his gaze was set firmly forward. "You're running as if you were playing tennis," he pointed out. "In tennis you put your arms out for balance. But this is a simple warm-up, and extending your arms out when you don't need to is draining your stamina."

She suddenly became conscious of this and extracted her arms back to her sides. "Ah… thank you, Ryoma-kun."

"Ja." His speed accelerated as he attempted to catch up with the others.

'_Did he slow down just to give me some advice?_' A smile spread across her face (as did the blush) as she watched him take off. '_This isn't the first time he's done that... Ryoma-kun…_'

Chiharu observed this with amusement. Gradually, she slowed her pace so she was side-by-side with the girl freshman. "Hi."

"A-ah, good afternoon, Oshiro-senpai!" she replied politely.

The blue-gray haired girl smiled at her. "We're a lot alike, you and me, you know?"

"Ah…?"

She nodded and smiled so her eyes were closed, like Fuji's. "You should tell him how you feel."

"Ehhh?" Sakuno turned completely red. "It's not… I don't…_"_

"And _you_…," Akane said over her shoulder, "…should take your own advice, Chiharu!"

Now Chiharu was the one blushing. "I have no idea what you are talking about!"

Kimiko turned to Akane, her voice deliberately loud. "Hmm… I wonder who's denser, Tezuka or that freshmen kid."

She agreed. "I don't get it. It's so obvious to everyone else."

Sakuno and Chiharu were ever so glad that the boys had run far ahead.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

After another few minutes of intense running, all regulars were on their last lap. Inui's calculations were correct, the boys had looped the girls exactly eight laps, and all were on the same pace now. This lap was definitely proving to be the hardest.

"BURNING! GREAT!" Kawamura swung his racket around, carving a clear path through all the runners. Echizen followed closely behind, a smug smile on his lips.

"Echizen, you did it again!" Momoshiro cried.

Kikumaru shook his fist at him. "So sly, ochibi!"

"Eh? What did that freshman do?" Kimiko asked, confused.

"Handed Kawamura his racket." Akane replied simply.

Kimiko made a face at Akane. "Clear as mud."

"The palpability of a racket to Kawamura… " Reina began, flipping through her notes. "Augments his—"

"Never mind, Reina-senpai, forget I asked!" Kimiko interrupted frantically, wincing. '_Palpability? That has FIVE syllables!_'

"You know, sometimes being around you has its good traits too._" _Akane said to Reina.

"Thirty seconds left…" Inui said.

"EEH? ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

The male regulars increased their speed into a sprint.

"Well, we can't lose either!" Akane formed a fist with her hand and pointed it in their direction. "Let's get them!"

"Hai!"

Rounding the last corner, all the regulars formed one giant line, girls and guys alike. Coach Ryuzaki and the other team members had to move the table upon which the water (and the pitcher of Juice) was set back a few meters so there was enough room.

"So… tired…" Sakuno panted as she forced her legs to keep running. She could no longer feel them. They felt detached. Even as she kept her arms as close to her sides as possible, she never had as much stamina as the rest in the first place. It was a wonder she hadn't fallen behind. However, she knew she wasn't going to last to the end. '_I can't keep at a 100% sprint for more than 50 meters… I'm so tired…_' "A-Ah!" Her legs suddenly gave way beneath her and she fell forward. '_I couldn't… keep up…_'

Someone caught her by the hand and yanked her forward. "R-ryoma-kun!"

"Mada mada dane!" he said. The momentum from the grab allowed her to pass the finish line along with the rest. They collapsed onto the dirt in one giant heap.

"A… tie…" Momoshiro said between gasps of air.

Oishi wiped at the sweat that was pouring down. "Inui… please… stop it with the drinks…" he breathed.

"Hmm…" Inui murmured. "So it would seem…" He turned around to where Sakuno and Ryoma had fallen.

"Huh?" Everyone looked up at the data tennis player, trying to regain their breath. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Ryoma felt a shadow being cast over him as someone approached, blocking the sun. Inui was holding the pitcher of vegetable juice. "Echizen, you fail."

"Eh? Ochibi came last? That's impossible!"

"Helping someone else is cheating…" Inui explained. "And cheating results in a fail…" He held the pitcher out invitingly.

"I don't understand," Kawamura said, confused. "Echizen… cheated?"

"Oh, that's right!" Horio exclaimed, pointing. "We saw Echizen grab Ryuzaki's hand and pull her to the finish line in time!"

Kikumaru let out a whistle.

"Ah, being young is great…" Momoshiro sighed.

"Aww… that's sweet…" Kimiko murmured. She tugged on Chiharu's shirt. "I bet you wish that happened to you… except with someone else."

Chiharu hid her blushing face.

"I could trip you next time…" Sayaka teased.

Suzume sat up from the ground. "She's clumsy enough for it to happen on her own…"

"Maybe Tezuka is the densest after all…" Akane concluded.

"Saa, Echizen," Inui repeated, the pitcher of green juice bubbling with malice. His glasses flashed as the sadistic smile made its way onto his face. "Bon Appétit."

Ryoma cringed as he rose to accept the punishment. Suddenly Sakuno ran in front of him and put her arms out, facing Inui. "…ah…?"

"It's not fair to have Ryoma-kun take the punishment when it was my fault!" Sakuno proclaimed. "He was just trying to help! I wouldn't have made it anyways!"

Everyone stared at her, surprised at her sudden outburst.

"I'll drink it!" she declared, reaching a hand out.

"EH?"

"You should've just made Echizen do it for you!"

"Ryuzaki… do you want to kill yourself?"

"Never mind that!" Tezuka commanded abruptly, and everyone turned back to look at him. "We've wasted enough time on the matter already. Proceed to stretching." He again caught the look of Akane. "Girl regulars, help the boys stretch first, then change places."

"Ehh?" (_It seems they're saying that a lot_)

"Does everyone not know how to do that?" Oishi asked. "You just place your hands on the other person's shoulder blades and push forwar—"

"No, we know," Sayaka said, scratching her head. "But…"

"It's just…" Momoshiro laughed uncomfortably. "...weird."

Sayaka tapped his cheek with her fist. "We haven't finished each others' sentences since 6th grade. Why the sudden change, bro?"

"Why does it have to be guy-girl paired?" Kimiko asked, her lavender eyes clouded with puzzlement.

"Inui arranged it, didn't he? He could be a closet pervert," Suzume said flatly. "You never know."

Inui twitched at her statement.

"Suzume!" Akane glared at her. "You can't talk to your senpai like that. Apologize."

The redhead ignored her and retied her shoelaces.

"Kimura!" Akane said, her anger flaring.

Kimiko jumped and hid behind Kikumaru, although tufts of magenta hair peeked out from his shoulder. "Gah… buchou is pissed again."

"Oh-nya?"

"When Akane-buchou calls someone by their surname… it means she's mad."

Izumi watched it happen. The scene was very familiar; it was as if nothing had changed since she quit. "It's still like that…" she said quietly.

The male regulars turned their heads toward her when they heard her comment. "Like what?" Kikumaru asked her curiously.

"That is… Akane-buchou hates it when someone disobeys a direct order," she explained. "Then again, Kimura-san hates obeying orders."

"Don't make me repeat myself…" Akane said. Her voice had become low and dangerous.

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu said.

Suzume glanced at the blue-haired girl, then back to Inui, who was still holding the pitcher. "Gomenasai, Inui-senpai," she finally said. "I wasn't trying to be rude. I was a bit upset about the arrangements. That's all."

Inui smiled. "I'll accept your apology… if you care to finish this." He indicated the pitcher of Juice.

Suzume sweatdropped. "On the other hand, I'm not sorry at all."

"Inui, that's so harsh!" Kikumaru complained.

He held up a hand. "I'm joking. But let it be known to anyone who tries to quit the training menu today…" He set the pitcher down on the table. "This will be waiting…"

A shiver ran through all of them.

"The arrangements were made by me." Tezuka told them.

"WHAT?"

"No, there's no way Tezuka would be a closet pervert…"

Tezuka gave them a glare. "What are you talking about? Begin stretching!"

Sumire Ryuzaki smiled. '_Tezuka and Oishi are knowledgeable…_' she thought._ 'Before we improve their individual strengths, the girls must become a team. There is no way to win a tournament if the girls do not shoulder the responsibility of a team together. Tezuka and Oishi are trying to integrate the girls into all of the training so the team can truly be united. They understand that that's the most important thing right now…_' She had a new respect for the captain and vice-captain now.

Sayaka walked over to her brother. '_Thank god he's in the team… It would be awkward if I had to help someone else stretch._'

"Yo, Momoshiro!" Suzume called. Both the twins looked at her. "I meant the girl."

"Yeah?" Sayaka felt her hands curl into fists on their own. She didn't know what to expect from Suzume. She hadn't forgotten all those taunts fired at her before.

Suzume got up and took a few steps so they were face to face. She couldn't help but smirk at how tense Sayaka was. "Relax," she said. "You mind if I have him as my partner?" She jerked her head in Momoshiro's direction. "I still have a debt to repay from yesterday…"

"Yesterday…? Hmm…" Sayaka tried hard to remember. Suddenly the image of Suzume calling him a pervert and punching him came to mind. "Oh, so sending him flying across the room wasn't enough for you?" She laughed. "By all means, go ahead."

Sayaka felt a little lost then. Her brother was her first choice, after all, since they were siblings… it seemed okay. Kaidoh was the only other guy in her year, but since they didn't talk much, it would be… awkward. That freshman kid—what was his name again? Oh right, Echizen—was out, that privilege belonged to that Ryuzaki girl. That only left her senpais as a choice. She felt embarrassed to walk up to any of them and offer to help with their stretches; not only was there an age difference but a gender difference as well.

"Sayaaaaka-chaaaan! Over here, over here!"

Ah, fate chose for her. She smiled. At least Kikumaru was someone she had talked to in the last few days.

'_Eiji's taken now… what should I do?_' Her heart told her to go one way, her mind the other. Izumi ignored the tugging at her heart and approached Oishi, lowering her head politely. "If you don't mind…"

"No, not at all." he replied, sitting so his legs were straight in front of him.

She sat down behind him and placed her hands on her shoulder, pushing so he was reaching for his toes. With every push, she increased the amount of power by just a little so his fingertips moved closer and closer. Oishi was a good person, she thought. '_He's someone who's reliable._ _This is the kind of person I can confide my feelings into… unlike… him._' Yet there seemed to be a knot forming in her gut as she continued to push his shoulders forward. When she closed her eyes to try and calm herself down, all she saw was someone's eyes. Blue eyes.

She couldn't help but quickly glance in Fuji's direction to see who was helping him stretch. A flash of ginger hair told her it was Akane.

Oishi's voice brought her back to the present. "…come back."

"I'm sorry?" She let go of his shoulders.

He turned and gave her a smile over his shoulder. "You should come back to student council. We've never had a better secretary than you. You were very reliable."

'_Me? Reliable? No one can compare to you in terms of that, Oishi._'_ "_Reliable people don't quit after just two months," she said as he faced forward again. "And I don't think I can. It would be just too much for me to juggle between tennis and my studies."

"That's a shame," Oishi said. "But you're right; the secretary probably _does_ have the hardest job in the student council. Everyone expects you to take notes on everything, and if you miss something they blame you completely. Takaya-san has threatened to quit several times."

"Natsuko won't quit. She's not the kind of person to leave things unfinished." Izumi recalled the headstrong girl that had taken her place when she left the student council. '_She's not like me…_'

"Hmm…you're probably right…" He then placed his legs so they were in a small 'V' shape and told the other regulars to do so. The girls then gently pushed their shoulders so their heads were reaching for the ground.

Or in Suzume's case, not so gently.

"OWW! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Momoshiro yelled when his head was shoved against the ground for the fifth time. There was already a bruise forming in the middle of his forehead, he could feel it. His legs felt like they were being stretched so hard that his ligaments would be snapped.

"What the hell's wrong with _you_?" she retorted, then added under her breath, "F*ckin' pervert…"

"Oi, I already said that it wasn't like that!" But he was answered with another huge push, bashing his head into the dirt. "Stop it, you Kamio-wannabe!"

"Kamio-wannabe?" she repeated, a confused look in her eyes—well, eye. "Who's Kamio?"

Kikumaru looked their way. "Hmm, come to think of it, Kimura-chan _does _have a similar hair style to Kamio, only longer."

"Kamio is a regular on Fudomine's tennis team," Momoshiro explained. "You guys have the same hairstyle and color, but yours is longer. And you can sometimes see his left eye but I can never see your—OW!" His head was reacquainted with the dirt.

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu said, looking up from where she was stretching Kaidoh. "That's enough… okay?"

"Che." She scowled at the back of Momoshiro's head, smashing it against the ground one last time and grinding it in with extra force.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_A while ago…_

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ano… R-ryoma-kun…" Sakuno said timidly.

Ryoma looked up from where he was sitting. He had begun stretching on his own.

"Ah… that is… w-we are supposed to help each other stretch right?" she stammered, her face becoming redder and redder with each word. "So… do you… um, mind if I partner with you?"

He just stared at her for a moment. She blushed even harder, casting her eyes downward. "Never mind, forget I asked…"

"Sure," he replied, lowering his cap. "Why would I mind?"

"Eh!" Her eyes focused back on him, but he had already turned to the front. Shyly, she placed her hands against his shoulders and pushed him as he stretched his arms over his feet. Her hands were shaking, and she was afraid to apply force. She had no idea how much force would be necessary. What if she hurt him? '_What should I do…_?'

"Ryuzaki…"

"Ah?" She stopped and let go of him.

"You can push a bit harder…"

"H-hai!"

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Change places!" Tezuka's voice commanded. The girls sat on the ground, and the guys walked behind them. A few minutes later Kikumaru let out a cry of astonishment.

"WHOA! LOOK, LOOK!" He pressed one finger into Sayaka's back, and gaped as her whole body bent straight over her legs so her chest was pressed against her thighs, not a gap remaining. "SHE'S SO FLEXIBLE!"

Momoshiro chuckled, hand on his head. "That's sis for you," He shook his head, muttering, "Show off."

"Sugoi, Sayaka-chan! No wonder you can play such good acrobatic tennis!" Kikumaru beamed happily.

"Ne, Kawamura-senpai…" Kimiko asked as she did her stretches. "Are you going to inherit the sushi shop?"

"Ah, someday," he replied with a smile. "But tennis is my top priority right now."

"That sushi was really good! I want to go back…" She giggled.

"Ah, you'll have a chance. My dad treats us every time we win a tournament…" He turned to the rest of the group. "And its straight wins from now on, right?"

"Yeah!"

"Don't forget us girls…" Akane reminded them. "We're going to take the Kanto Regionals and Nationals this year, as the first team to win in the new girl tournament."

"EH?" A new voice came. "IT'S REALLY AN ALL GIRL TEAM!" They heard various clicking noises.

"Shiba… calm down, save your film for the matches."

The girl regulars stared at the man and woman behind the fence with confusion. Coach Ryuzaki ran through the introductions quickly. "Inoue and Shiba from Tennis Monthly; they've been interviewing us for ages."

Inoue gave them a smile. "Well, I'm sure you'd be interested to hear… we just came from Hyotei Gakuen this morning."

"Hyotei?" Momoshiro repeated, his curiosity sparked.

"Ah," Inoue confirmed it. "And they too have begun vigorous training for their new girl team. The girls there…" His smile faded slightly. "Are really strong."

"Hmm…" Akane smiled, interested. "Well, I wouldn't call us weak, Inoue-san."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno's legs hurt a bit as they were being stretched. She never really had the habit of stretching before she practiced tennis and knew it was a mistake now. "Ite…" She winced. '_Should I tell Ryoma-kun to push more lightly? What if he thinks I'm weak?_' Another push, another sharp pain ran through her legs. "Ano… Ryoma-kun…"

"Hmm?" He caught sight of her expression, stopping his hands. "Does it hurt?"

"No… well, yes… a bit…" She lowered her head in shame. "Gomen…"

He continued stretching her, his force considerably lighter now. "You could've just told me."

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"WHOA!" Eiji cried again, this time pointing in Oishi's direction. "Morioka-chan is so flexible too!" Izumi could easily touch her nose to her knees with a single push.

Kimiko smiled and ruffled her magenta hair as Kawamura paused in helping her stretch. "Looks like there's hope for us then."

"Oishi, Akane…" Tezuka stood up. "I'd like to speak with you both."

"Ah," Oishi scrambled to his feet. "Gomen, Morioka-san. You can finish the stretches on your own, right?"

She nodded and proceeded reaching for her toes. Her tennis racket lay at her feet. Briefly, she wondered what else they would have to do today. So far, they hadn't done anything with the rackets they had carried with them. Would they play matches against each other? And how would they decide the singles or doubles that would play? That was probably what Tezuka wanted to talk to Oishi and Akane about. '_Eiji and Oishi… how did they decide to play doubles and become Seigaku's golden pair?_'

Suddenly, she felt hands on her shoulders again, assisting her stretching. They were different from Oishi's, who were firm and sure; these were light and gentle. She whirled around.

"Gomen, Izumi-san." Fuji's smiling face came into view. "Did I startle you?" His hands were still on her shoulders.

"No, it's okay…"She turned to the front again, and he gradually increased the pressure on her shoulders, applying it gently. Her forehead brushed against her knees. "Sugoi, Izumi-san. You are very flexible." His voice caused her cheeks to feel warm.

'_I can't… do this…_' she suddenly realized. She moved away and got to her feet, her motion surprising Fuji. "I was pretty much done, thank you." she said. Her face was expressionless, but Fuji noticed that she wouldn't look at him.

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Regulars gather around!" Oishi called out.

"Hai!"

He glanced at all the expectant faces before them, especially the girls. The wind blew softly as he recalled the conversation he had minutes before with Tezuka and Akane.

'"_They_'_re all so different and have different personalities, each more extreme than the next… how are we supposed to unite them?" _he had asked.

"_Isn't that the same with you guys?_" Akane had answered. "_You have Momoshiro, the passionate one; Kaidoh, the angry Viper; Echizen, the super rookie; Kawamura, the juggernaut; Inui, the Data Specialist, Fuji, the sadistic tensai; Kikumaru, the playful acrobat; Tezuka, the cold captain…_"

_Tezuka shifted slightly._

"…_and you," Akane smiled. "Oishi, the one that worries too much._"

"_But how? How are we supposed to unite them into one team?"_

The answer was so obvious. "_Through tennis," Akane said simply. "That's why we're here. We're Seigaku's Tennis Team._"'

'_Through tennis…_' he repeated in his head. "Now, practice will begin. We're going to have practice matches, starting with the girls."

"Matches, out of the blue?"

"This ought to be interesting…

He glanced down at a sheet of paper he was holding. "Oshiro and Komboi, Court A."

Chiharu picked up her racket, managing to walk to the court with minimal stumbling. Aiko pushed her braids over her shoulder, the beads clicking together. She then turned to Echizen and said in English, "Which one's Oshiro?"

"The blue-gray haired nee-chan." he replied, pointing with his thumb.

"Oh." Aiko, too, walked into the court and held out her hand to Chiharu. "Let's have a good match."

Chiharu clasped it, white skin against black. "You speak Japanese quite well," she said with a smile.

"Thank you. That's about the extent of it…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Court B, Morioka and Marui."

"WHAT? AKANE, YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE!" Kimiko cried, her racket pointed towards Akane accusingly. "WHY DO I HAVE TO GO AGAINST IZUMI-SENPAI AGAIN?

"I arranged it," Reina said, her glasses glinting. "But if you'd rather not, Inui-san has a treat waiting for you…"

Kimiko gulped and turned towards the pitcher of green liquid, which began to bubble on its own mysteriously. "No… no thanks," she said. She grumbled inaudible complaints to herself as she stepped onto the courts.

"Oi, why doesn't Marui want to play against Morioka-chan?" Kikumaru asked Akane.

"Izumi is a counter-puncher; and she has a style that is strong against Kimiko's net play," she explained. "Last time they played, the game went on for hours, and Kimiko was drained with no stamina left to even walk home."

Kimiko shook hands with Izumi. "I can't believe I have to play against you again…" she griped, her other hand tugging on the short stands of magenta hair. Then she suddenly brightened. "But don't worry, I'll end the match speedy quick this time!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Court C, Ito and Ryuzaki…"

"Eh?" Sakuno panicked. '_I'm playing against the captain! How is that… possible?_'

"Don't worry," Akane assured her. "I'm not that good of a singles player."

"Eh? T-that's not true… you're captain, and I've seen you play hundreds of times!"

Akane shook her head. "I specialize in doubles. Actually…" She looked Sakuno up and down. "I recommended you in joining the team, because I think you would be a good doubles player."

"Really?" Sakuno felt warmth spread through her body. '_She thinks I have talent in playing doubles!_'

"Maybe Seigaku will have three Golden Pairs in the near future." Akane said thoughtfully. "If I can work it out with my partner…"

"Ah… that's right, I've seen you play with—"

"—Me!" Kimiko called from the court next to them. She held up her victory sign. "The reason Akane-buzhou and I are undefeated is because I'm such a genius! Hee hee!"

"Oi, Mamushi..." Momoshiro said while watching Kimiko.

"What?" Kaidoh growled.

"Aren't those the words out of Rikkaidai's Marui Bunta's mouth?"

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Court D, Kimura and Momoshiro."

Sayaka felt herself tense up immediately. So she was playing that Suzume girl. Somehow the thought made her blood run cold.

"Hmm…" Suzume looked over at Sayaka and smirked. "This is going to be fun…"

"What?" Momoshiro hurried to where his sister was standing. "_You're _playing her?"

"Yeah." Sayaka tried to say it like it was no big deal, but her voice came out shaky. She was nervous. Nervous and…_ angry_ at the same time, somehow. She wanted to pay Suzume back for all those taunts and insults… '_But I'm afraid of not being able to…_' She picked up her racket and began to walk towards the courts.

"Sis…" Momoshiro placed a hand on her shoulder. "Be careful… okay?" He looked at Suzume. "That girl… isn't going to be easy to win."

She shrugged it off. "You haven't seen me play yet, remember?"

"Listen, okay?" He began to feel frustrated. "When Fuji-senpai and I saw her play, the first thing that came to my mind was that I hoped you would never have to play her! Her play style… is something I probably wouldn't be able to handle!"

She turned around, a grin on her face. "_My _play style would probably be too much for you to handle."

He stood speechless for a second, then closed his eyes and shook his head, an exasperated smile forming on his face. "That's Sayaka for you. Confident as always."

'_Still…_' she thought,_ 'he hasn't really worried about me before… and he's starting to all of a sudden because of this Suzume girl? She must be pretty good…_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"You aren't playing, Watanabe-san?" Inui questioned.

"Reina. I believe I have requested you address me by my given name," She nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose. "My role in the team is much like yours, Inui-san."

"I see… hmm…" Bending down to open his racket bag, he pulled out several green notebooks, blank ones. He then straightened up, his glasses flashing with the promise of a new challenge. "Well, time to begin data collection on our new team…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"One set match!"

Chiharu's amber eyes met Aiko's brown ones in a look of rivalry. Kimiko's lavender eyes winked at Izumi's dark ones playfully. Akane let her cerulean orbs linger on the chocolate eyes of Sakuno's and never saw stronger determination. Suzume's dark green eye received a glare from Sayaka's purple ones in challenge mode.

"It's beginning!" Inoue warned.

"I got it!" Shiba held her camera up, ready.

"Hmm…." Ryoma murmured with a smile. "Interesting…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Five

A/N: Well, it's going to be hard to write all the girls' matches out. It's not like anime; you have no awesome effects nor cool music… so yeah, I'll try my best! Review people! Haha.

More reviews, more motivation and then I write more chapters. At a faster speed too, I must add.

I'm so happy that Konomi-san is continuing Prince of Tennis!

**Next chapter: Chiharu—Miracle on the Court**


	6. Miracle on the Court

**Disclaimer: **Nope, sadly, no owning Prince of Tennis. I own all OC characters in this fanfic though.

Thank you to all my reviewers. Constructive criticism helped with shaping the story, and encouragement was my motivation. You're the reason why I updated so fast this time. That and Chinese New Year break. XD

So… I don't know why, but Chiharu was kicking at me these few weeks. I really wanted to explore her as a character so I decided to start with her game. I tried to make the game interesting, but like I said before, there's no cool graphics, no awesome music involved, so just try to imagine the scene. It also helped me explore Aiko's character a bit too.

It's a match between Chiharu (blue gray haired girl with Tomoka pigtails) and Aiko AKA Ayikuo (African American girl with beads in her hair.)

Some people PMed me questioning where I'll go with the rest of the story, and I think I might make it into an AU. Maybe. Not sure. Oh yes, and those of you who asked about the title of the story… well… that'll become clear much LATER in the story XDD. Be patient.

Tiny tiny tiny bit of RyoSaku, but I couldn't really fit them into this chapter. Patience, my friends.

THOSE PPL ON STORY ALERT WHO DON'T REVIEW, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. SO REVIEW!

To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Six; Chiharu: Miracle on the Court

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

As the girls' matches were beginning, the crowds around the fences had increased greatly, though a large percentage was male. Akane by far attracted the most attention, but the number of people watching Chiharu's and Kimiko's match were not small either.

"Inui-san!" Reina called as he was walking toward Court C, where Akane's match was being held. It would definitely prove to be an interesting match; with the girls' captain and the new freshman playing against each other. He was anxious to gather data on the new team captain, as well as this fangirl-suddenly-turned-pro freshman.

He stopped mid-step and turned around. "Hmm? What is it?"

"You might want to stay. Court A's match will be more interesting," she said, pointing. "Oshiro Chiharu is playing."

"Oshiro-san?" He retraced his steps back, opening the notebook. "The one in which you said: 'Analytical skills and data are constantly proven ineffective; nothing short of a miracle serves as an explanation for her tennis style.'" He closed the notebook, looking up. "Interesting."

"Oshiro to serve!"

Chiharu tossed the ball up and served to the right corner of the service court. Aiko returned the ball easily, and soon a rally was underway.

"That was a perfectly ordinary serve," Inui noted as his scribbled on the notebook, filling the blank pages with text.

"That is one of the most dangerous traits of her play style," Reina told him. "What seems ordinary is commonly not so."

"Hmm…"

Aiko swung her racket, noting that the left court was free. She aimed the shot so it was about an arm's length from the edge, safely within the borders. Chiharu was at the right of the court; there was no way she'd make it. But almost the minute her racket came in contact with the ball, Chiharu moved. '_What!_' The blue haired girl ran swiftly to the ball with plenty of time to get into position. She made a cross shot to the left of Aiko, the ball grazing the edge of the singles court.

"15-love."

The dark-skinned girl tightened her grip on her racket. "That was a fluke," she said to herself. "She couldn't possibly know where the ball would land before she saw its path." Yet the movements in her opponent were so sure. '_How did she do it?_'

Chiharu served again, and another rally got going. After seeing an opening clearly, Aiko tried again. "How about here?"

Again, the very second she hit the ball, Chiharu moved, in the exact direction in which she had made the shot. She returned it to the opposite edge, far out of Aiko's reach.

"30-love."

Aiko felt her mouth drop open. "Impossible…"

"Hmm…?" Ryoma smiled from the sidelines. "Not bad, Oshiro-senpai."

"Eh?" The freshman trio turned towards him. "What is she doing, Ryoma-kun?"

"Hmmm… don't know."

Horio fell to the ground.

"Watch…" Inui said. "It's as if Oshiro knows exactly where Komboi will hit it." They watched as Chiharu interpreted another shot and took the first game.

"Game, Oshiro. 1 game to love."

"Care to elaborate, Reina?" Inui said as he wrote some more notes down.

She adjusted her lenses, her large eyes intent and unblinking. "Oshiro Chiharu is gifted with extraordinary hearing. You know the twins from Josei Shonan?"

"Ah…" Without taking his eyes off the game, Inui reached into the bag at his feet and withdrew another notebook. He opened it to a page near the middle. "Tanaka Yohei, who has exceptional hearing, is paired with his twin Tanaka Kohei, who has excellent eyesight." He tapped his pencil on the paper, his voice a tad skeptical, "So she listens to the impact the ball makes when it hits the racket to predict its path? That sounds a bit difficult, but it's not impossible. So this is the living miracle?"

"There's more," Reina watched her friend smash the ball onto the court. "Chiharu…—"

"Game, Oshiro. 3 games to love. Change court!"

"—… is a synesthete."

_Tap._ Inui dropped his pencil. "Are you _serious_?"

Ryoma raised the rim of his cap, observing his senpai. It wasn't like Inui to be surprised.

"Quite." Reina nodded.

Inui picked up his pencil quickly and began scribbling in the notebook furiously. "I see… that explains it. Sound to Color Synesthesia?"

Reina shook her head. "That is only the beginning. She's multi-synesthesic."

"Ne, what is synesthesia?" Horio asked the other two.

"God knows…" Katsuo shrugged helplessly.

Reina turned to them. "Synesthesia is classified as a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway elicits automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway, as a difference in perceptual experiences."

There was a brief pause.

"Like I said," Katsuo said. "God knows."

As Inui wrote more and more, his hand dwarfed the stub of his pencil. "Unbelievable… Only about one out of a hundred people have synesthesia, and an even less percentage are multi-synesthesic. She could be one of the only people to ever incorporate it into playing tennis."

"Actually, you're wrong there." Akane had approached them, sipping from her water bottle.

They turned to gaze at her. Her appearance was rather sudden, as to their information she should be in the middle of a game right now. "Ito-senpai, you're game has finished already?" Horio asked.

"Yes, it has."

"That was fast." Ryoma muttered. Under the cover of his cap, he shifted his eyes towards the court where her game was held. Sakuno had already left the court.

"Love game?" Reina inquired without looking at her. When Akane confirmed that she had won 6-0, the black haired girl said, "Rather harsh on the new freshman, huh?"

"I needed to be." She offered no further explanation. Silently, she took the pink elastic headband off her forehead, as it was soaked with perspiration.

Ryoma pulled the cap over his head so no one would notice his wandering eyes. He scanned the area, but there was no sign of her. He debated on leaving the game under the excuse of getting a Ponta, but the information about Oshiro-senpai was getting interesting, as was the match.

Chiharu jumped and smashed the drop shot to the ground, anticipating the shot. Inui noted that she had begun running forward as soon as Aiko's racket touched the ball. A drop shot's sound was easy to interpret, but Chiharu managed to predict that the drop shot would be to the far edge of the net. Her smash won her yet another game. "So… you were saying I was 'wrong'?"

"Yeah, nowadays synesthesia is common. One in 25 individuals could have this condition. Reina, you haven't told him?" She smiled as she took another sip from her water bottle. "Reina is too, a synesthete."

Inui blinked twice. "This is unexpected."

Reina, however, denied it.

"Ito-senpai, what is synesthesia?" Horio asked.

"Normal people have five senses," Akane began explaining. "Synethetes have these, but they also have combinations of these senses. For example—Inui, lend me a piece of paper and that pencil—" Inui reluctantly gave these to her, as they would take up his data recording time, yet he was also curious at what she was doing. Akane scribbled a few marks on the paper and held it up. "See this?"

The freshman trio peered closely at the paper. It was rows and rows of the digital numeral 'five', made up of straight lines, as one might see on a digital clock. "Five…?"

"Chiharu has Grapheme to Color synesthesia as well, so she associates letters and numbers with colors. The alphabet is a rainbow of colors for her." Akane pointed to the paper in several places, revealing that there were three digital numeral 'twos' well hidden among the 'fives' as they were nearly the same shape.

"Ah! It wasn't all 'fives'?"

"Chiharu would be able to pick these out immediately, as she sees 'five' as green and 'two' as red."

"Whoa… sugoi!"

"But that's not what she's doing now," Akane continued. "She also has a form of synesthesia that causes her to see colors and shapes when she hears a specific sound. A car's horn honking would be a green splash for her, whereas a melody would probably be a rainbow spider web branching out." Her eyes went back to the game, where Chiharu was currently winning 5-0. "By interpreting the shape and color of the sound the racket makes when it impacts the ball, she knows where the ball is going to go."

The freshmen all stole a glance at Reina, secretly wondering why she couldn't have just explained it like Akane did.

"I knew she had synesthesia when we were first years in middle school," Akane said. "And I asked her what class she was in. She replied, 'Red'." Akane ran a hand through her ginger hair, remembering. "It was class 2."

"I encountered Chiharu when we both went to the hospital for tests on our synesthetic condition," Reina said. "That's how I knew."

"Ah, so that's how the hospital staff recognized her!" Inui recalled.

"Yeah, Chiharu is _quite_ the research subject," Akane said, nodding. "She often gets called away by some crazy scientist or the other to be examined."

Inui pushed his glasses up for a second before continuing taking notes. "So only you and Reina know about it?" he asked out of the corner of his mouth.

"No, actually—" Reina let out a rare grin.

Akane smirked as well. "—_he_ knows too." She tilted her head to a person standing at the edge of the court, watching the match with concern. "Our captain, that is."

"Oh?" Curiosity kicked him. "How?"

"You didn't know? I thought the whole school was talking about it!" Akane laughed. "It was when Chiharu finally asked Tezuka for his number at the end of first year."

"Oshiro did that?" Somehow the shy girl didn't seem like the kind that would ask a boy for his cell phone number. _Especially_ if that guy was Tezuka.

"Well, we kind of forced her… but that's beside the point."

"So…" The tip of his pencil broke since he was writing with such enthusiasm. He pulled another one from his bag and continued writing without missing a beat. "How did it happen? And don't leave out any details."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

—FLASHBACK—

"Ano…Tezuka-san…" Chiharu approached him at his desk.

The light caught on his hair as he looked up from a problem on his math homework. In order to give him more time for tennis, he often used his break time for homework and studying. "What is it?"

She blushed when his eyes met hers and looked down at her hands. "I… that is… um…" Her hands fiddled on the notebook she was holding, playing with the spiral wire that bound it together. "Um…"

Akane whispered loudly from behind her. "Just spit it out already!"

"Um… could-I-have-your-cell-phone-number?" she blurted in one jumbled rush.

He blinked, not saying anything. His silence made her go redder, before he finally said, "What for?"

She fidgeted a bit, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. "N-nothing, really… I just…" For some strange reason, she felt her eyes beginning to well up. She bit her lip. "It's okay, never mind then…"

To her surprise, the notebook was taken from her hands. A minute later he handed it back to her, his number written on the top of the first page. "Ah! Thank you! Thank you very much!" she exclaimed, bowing. Amber eyes scanned the number. "Tezuka-san, your phone number has an interesting color sequence!"

She suddenly covered her mouth with her hand, aware of what she just said. Most people didn't understand her ramblings about 'imaginary' colors and numbers. He was regarding her with interest, his head cocked slightly to the side. She blushed a bit more. He probably thought she was crazy now. "Um… not that… um… forget what I said…"

He nodded to himself, saying quietly, "So you're a synesthete."

—END FLASHBACK—

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Oooh… So does she text him often?" Fuji and Kikumaru had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and had heard every word of the story. The freshman trio jumped at their sudden appearance, but Reina, Inui, and Akane seemed not to have noticed. Or possibly, being in the same grade, they were used to it.

"Of course." Akane stated this as if it was obvious.

"Saa…" Fuji murmured. "The real question is, does he reply?"

"Well, the last time I went through her cell phone, it was full of his texts." Akane let out a smile as she watched her friend. "So yeah, I think he does reply pretty often."

"WOW! Akane, do you remember any?" Kikumaru asked hopefully, his curiosity sparked. What did Tezuka say to Chiharu? He seemed to have a _lot _to say; more than he said to anyone else.

"Not telling."

"Aww… PLEASE?" He made puppy eyes at her.

"No way."

"So mean…" he grumbled.

Fuji's smile seemed all the more secretive. "Well, Tezuka has always had a soft spot for Oshiro-san…"

"WHAT?" Kikumaru jumped him. "Are you dreaming, Fuji? Does that face—" He twisted Fuji's head so they were both looking at the captain. "—look like a face that would have a soft spot for _anyone_?" Their captain was watching the match with his usual stoic expression.

Tezuka noticed them watching him. "What are you doing? Fuji, Kikumaru, take court C and play a one point match!"

Kikumaru winced. "Aww… and we only came over here because Morioka-chan and that pinkish second year were changing courts and taking a break."

"How's their game going?" Akane asked out of interest.

"It's pretty even. The score is tied at one. They had several long rallies." Fuji told her.

Akane shook her head. "That means Kimiko isn't doing so well. Long rallies are a sign that she's being pressured."

"Eiji…" Fuji said, bouncing a ball upon his racket. "If you want to watch that badly, just lose the one point match as quickly as possible…"

"Mou…" Kikumaru complained. "Fujiko wants to watch too…"

"Loser drinks Inui Juice." Inui muttered.

"EH? Fuji, you better lose on purpose! You even _like _that drink!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So… What form of synesthesia does Watanabe-senpai have?" Katsuo dared to ask. As soon as the question left his lips, the freshman all winced in anticipation of her long, scientific response.

Reina drew in a deep breath in order to make her answer as detailed as possible.

Much to their delight, Akane answered for her. "Number form," she replied. "Reina sees numbers in space in front of her. It helps with her Data Tennis."

This was hard for the others to understand. Some of them imagined fives and twos dancing in front of their eyes.

"Hmm…" Inui looked up from his notebook. "I think I understand. When thinking of numbers, they appear in front of her so that she sees them around her. It's as if a number line is surrounding her."

"That's it, exactly," Akane said, snapping her fingers. "How did you know that?"

"Yanagi Renji from Rikkaidai seems to have the same experience; he described it to me once. I didn't know it was a form of synesthesia."

"The theory was recently passed, but it's still debatable."

Aiko panted heavily, hearing every word of the conversation and understanding enough of them to get the big picture. Scientific terms were often exactly the same as the English word, or sounding similar. '_What's with this synesthesia sh*t?_ _You can't win a match with some special ability!_' But the situation was proving her wrong; she was currently losing 5-0. '_Damn it… she's going to win me 6-0…_' She threw the ball up to serve, feeling sudden anger. '_I did not put my entire body through hell just to get beaten by some 'miracle'!_'

Memories of training flashed through her eyes. Days of running and nights of lifting weights. While others played at the beach, she swam against the current for as far as the lifeguard would allow her in order to build lung capacity. She'd run track to increase the strength in her muscles and marathons to improve her endurance. She didn't have any fancy techniques or talent. It was pure, harsh training. Training, day and night, made her into the tennis player she was today, '_and like hell I'm going to let that go to waste!_' Her fury fueling her, she served overhand to the opposite court.

Chiharu kept her eyes on the ball, but it confused her. The ball was flying towards her, she didn't have to move. Before, Aiko had constantly aimed for places she could not reach. She carefully listened to the bounce of the ball and swung her arm in a forehand return.

The racket was torn from her hands.

"15-0."

'_Ow._' She rubbed her wrists; her hands were numb. The racket clattered behind her. '_Such power…_' She looked at the dark-skinned girl in shock. '_Where did she get the power to do this…?_' Her hands picked up the racket from the ground slowly. It was surprisingly heavy. It was then that Chiharu realized how tired she was. It wasn't Aiko's power that had increased; it was her own strength that had lessened.

"Interesting…" Inui muttered as he tried to write as fast as he thought. "Aiko has turned the match into an endurance battle."

"It was her aim from the start." Reina noted.

"And it's working," Akane said. Chiharu was beginning to have trouble catching up to all of the balls. "Aiko found the major weakness in Chiharu's play style."

Aiko hid a smile, noticing that the rallies were getting longer and longer. Even though Chiharu could still pick up every shot she made, the blue haired girl was already slowing down. Her returns had less speed, less power. '_Did you not notice? Since the beginning, I always aimed for the farthest point from you, making you run as far as possible.' _One of the shots made it past her racket, winning Aiko a point.

"Just knowing where the ball is going to land isn't enough," Inui said. "You have to be able to reach it and return it. In Data Tennis we can predict where the ball is going to land based on the shots _we_ make, like chess. But Oshiro is interpreting it on the spot; right when Komboi is hitting it."

Aiko won another point. "It's not only that…" Akane suddenly realized as she took in Aiko's position on the court. "She moved closer to the net. This gives Chiharu less time to react after interpreting the sound of the ball."

Chiharu gritted her teeth. '_If it's like that… then here!'_ She lobbed the ball up. '_I'll just keep you at the baseline!_'

Aiko jumped up.

"There's no way she can reach that…" Horio said with an offhand shrug. "Momo-chan-senpai would have a hard time reaching that."

"No," Inui said, staring at how the muscles rippled on her dark legs. "She'll reach it."

Aiko let out a yell as she pinned the ball down with as much force as possible.

The ball bounced and missed Inui by an inch, embedding itself into the green wire fence.

"Game, Komboi, 5 games to 3."

"Whoa…" The freshman trio stared in awe.

"I thought so," Inui sounded smug. "With that kind of muscle structure, she should have a strong jumping ability."

"Inui-san…" Reina suddenly said. "Look at her form…"

All of them began to watch Aiko more closely. Aiko was running with her body vaguely bent forward. When they blinked, they saw a brief image of a lioness running across an African Plain flash before their eyes. The red and white beads in her braided hair clacked together as she leaped to catch another shot of Chiharu's, winning her another point.

"Detrusion of her torso…" Reina murmured as she wrote it down.

"…lowers her center of gravity." Inui finished. Their pencils were almost perfectly in sync. "It's a sprinting form. She intends to end the match quickly."

As Aiko got back into her serving position, Chiharu retreated to the baseline. She let out a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Akane nodded. "It's about time you started getting serious, Chiharu."

"I see." Inui murmured. "Remaining at the baseline gives her more time to interpret and counter."

Aiko served.

The return flew by Aiko's left leg. She never had time to react. '_What…_?' Her eyes widened in shock. '_What kind of return was that?_'

Tezuka nodded approvingly.

"Ah!" Kachiro cried, pointing. "Her eyes are still closed!"

Chiharu exhaled again. Even with her eyes closed, she saw the court clearly. Every sound was a splash of color that painted the picture of the court in the blackness of her closed eyes. The wind whispered through the net, blue wisps.

The ball hit the racket, this time the image had pink lines surrounding it. '_Topspin…_' She backhanded the ball; vibrations travelling up her arms. The ball came back in a powerful return; she saw red in the image, so she ran a few steps back in order to lessen the power of the ball when she hit it. When the ball came back, she jumped to smash, only to hear Aiko's footsteps become softer as she retreated. Chiharu then brought her racket down in a drop shot.

The onlookers applauded. "A perfect feint, with her eyes closed?"

"She can plan her next move without looking?"

"No." Akane responded. "She didn't plan at all…"

"With her closed eyes, there's no strategies, no tactics involved," Tezuka commented. "It's pure impulse."

"A play style not even data cannot predict." Reina proclaimed.

"Which is why we call Chiharu…" Akane said with a smile. "Miracle on the Court."

Aiko gripped the ball between her fingers, her nails digging into the green velvet surface. Sweat poured down her neck. "I'm not done yet," she voiced aloud. "I'm far from being finished." She served again.

Chiharu returned the ball with a cross shot, which Aiko barely managed to pick up. She then hit a cross shot to the other side of the court. As the ball fell, Aiko saw flashes of her training, bits and pieces of memories that reminded her of the effort she put through to get this far. She sprinted to the far end of the court and managed another return. This time, Chiharu hit a straight shot to her left.

"I am not going to lose like this!" Aiko ran forward to catch the ball. As she neared it, she pushed off with her feet and leaped forward to meet the ball, her muscles contracting. One braid came undone, the beads scattering across the court.

Tezuka, Akane, Reina, Inui, and Ryoma all narrowed their eyes at the same time.

A lioness leaping at her prey.

She hit the ball with crushing force. Chiharu heard the ball stretch the gut in Aiko's racket, and she knew how powerful the shot was. The sound before her eyes flashed red, bright red. '_There's no way I can return that! It's too powerful!_' But when she saw the colors surrounding the impact, she smiled slightly and didn't move. The ball whizzed by her head, ruffling her blue gray curls. It bounced on the ground, a hand's width from the boundary line of the court.

"Out! Game and Match, Oshiro, 6 games to 3."

They clasped their hands tightly together at the net, the sweat from their palms mixing. "I lost…" Aiko said in Japanese, before switching to English, "It was a good game though. You are really strong."

"Thank you." Chiharu replied. "Your last shot was amazing. Had it been in, I wouldn't have been able to return it."

They walked off the courts together, accepting the applause of the onlookers. The freshmen on duty rushed to sweep away the scattered beads. As Chiharu exited the court to wash her face and get a drink of water, she glanced at the captain. He gave her an approving nod, and she felt warmth spread through her body, from her head to her toes.

She tripped.

Akane sighed. "Still downright clumsy. Hard to believe she can be so graceful on the court."

"Still, isn't it her clumsiness that led her to the fateful meeting of Tezuka…?" Inui asked.

"True…" Akane smiled as she pulled the elastic out of her ginger hair.

"Remind me of the occurrence?" Reina asked.

"Oh, you forgot?" She grinned. "When we were first years, she fell down the stairs and he caught her."

"Oh yes…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

She took a few gulps of the cool water from the faucet before splashing her face with it. She gasped as the cold water hit her sweltering skin, before closing her eyes and enjoying the sensation. Iridescent drops clung to her hair; blue gray tresses decked with pearls. She pressed the towel against her face to dry it off, and headed back to the courts.

"Oshiro-san!" Some boys in her grade were leaning against the green wire fence that surrounded the courts. "Good game."

"Ah…" She felt her cheeks grow warm. "Thank you…"

"You know…" One of them approached her slowly. "I've been noticing you a lot lately…"

"Ehh?" Chiharu took a few steps back, her heart pounding. This was not expected. "Um… that is…"

"Your game is over, right? Wanna go have some fun?" He came closer to her, too close. The rest of the guys just watched the scene and smirked.

Her amber eyes reflected fear as she retreated a bit more. "No thanks… practice isn't over yet…" she managed to say.

"Come on," He grabbed her wrist. She struggled weakly; her arm was aching and tired from the match. "Don't you know how to have fun?"

Someone's arm came out of nowhere and knocked his hand away, breaking his grip. Tezuka stood between him and Chiharu.

"Tezuka-san…?" Chiharu whispered.

"Please stop harassing my team." He turned his head back to look at her, the gaze in his eyes stern… but also almost…_ protective_… "Let's go, Oshiro."

"H-hai!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Of course, that event was seen by all members on the court. Kikumaru was snickering behind his palm, so much that he didn't notice Fuji's shot until it hit him on the forehead. Inui handed him the pitcher with one hand and continued writing with his other, updating Tezuka's personal data as quickly as he could. "Hmm…" he murmured, thinking of the time Chiharu fell down the stairs and into his arms. "She really 'fell' for him, huh…"

Akane watched Tezuka and Chiharu enter the courts together. "Really?" she murmured thoughtfully. "Sometimes I wonder who had fallen for who…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Six

Dedicated to my synesthesic friend, Anya, whom I met through a summer program and who told my my cell phone number had a pretty color sequence. Sorry for making you prove you were synesthesic by printing out a test like Akane drew out.

It might help you readers to look up synesthesia on wikipedia.

Okay, review. Review. Review. I'm trying to get 100+ reviews. I know, big goal right? So tell your friends. And review. If you want more, review.

Sorry I completely crushed Sakuno, but it's vital for the next few chapters and her character, as well as Akane's.

The next game will either by Izumi vs. Kimiko or Sayaka vs. Suzume, and then I'll have flashes of Akane's game within Sakuno's memories. Sayaka vs. Suzume is kind of a big idea that I'm working on. Which one do you want to read first? **REVIEW** and tell me, and I'll get working right away.


	7. Dancer

**A/N: THANK YOU FOR 100+ REVIEWS! THANKS TO ALL PEOPLE WHO HELPED ME REACH THAT GOAL! You don't know how happy that made me to see so many reviews...**

**Disclaimer: I don't do drugs… except for PoT. (But I don't own it.)**

So, last time Chiharu beat Aiko in a match, and this match is between Kimiko (Marui Bunta's cousin) and Izumi (Kikumaru+Fuji's Classmate)

I'm thinking of making this story... semi-AU. Like, "What if PoT took place during their high school years?" So... Has everyone seen Fuji's Tsubame Gaeshi? Yes. Do they know everyone on the Fudomine team? Yes. Will Tezuka go to Germany? ...maybe. I'm working on that one. Will they face Rikkaidai in the Kantou's just like the anime? Yes. Has Yukimura had surgery yet? No. That kind of stuff.

Sorry, couldn't fit RyoSaku into this chapter either. And it's unlikely they'll make an appearance in the next one. But the next, next one will be all about RyoSaku! So no worries!

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Seven; Izumi: Dancer**

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kimiko bit down hard, her molars grinding together, trying to control her breathing. She blinked her lavender eyes several times before swiping the back of her hand over them; the sweat that ran into them was irritating them. Izumi served again; a no touch ace, meters from her racket.

This was _not _going well.

"Game, Morioka. 2 games to 1."

How was it possible? Time seems to pass slower; a slow, agonizing pace. That one game alone took half an hour. Kimiko was well aware of Izumi's tactic against her; she was making her run around the court. Instead of trying to win points immediately, she sacrificed some of the score each game in order to wear Kimiko out. Izumi was always hitting the ball just within Kimiko's reach… To Kimiko, this tactic was all too familiar; it was the same one Izumi used against her last time. She knew it… but… '_Why can't I counter it?_' Her precious stamina was being drained away. Another game like that and she might just end up on the ground.

"Damn you, Akane." she cursed out loud. The arrangements were obviously made by her. To pair Kimiko up against Izumi again… To test her if she could overcome this obstacle… that was _so _Akane's style.

Kimiko didn't realize this, but she wasn't the only one Akane was testing.

"Game, Morioka. 3 games to 1. Change court."

She had lost her service game. '_I'm going to get beaten flat… again…_' Kimiko thought as she all but collapsed onto the bench, panting hard. She put a wet towel over her eyes in attempt to cool them down, feeling the cool water soothe her eyes. '_No… I can still catch up…_ _I just have to find her weakness…_'

"Oh, looks like we made it in time." Akane, Aiko and Tezuka as well as Echizen and the freshman trio relocated to this court after the match between Chiharu and Aiko finished. Chiharu, Reina and Inui were more concerned with Suzume's match, so they moved on to court D.

"What's the score?" Akane asked Fuji.

"3 to 1, Izumi-san leading." he told her. "Marui-san is running out of stamina."

Akane noticed that he called Izumi by her first name.

"That pink second year's battery is just about out," Kikumaru said with a sad look. "Poor her, Morioka-chan made her run around from the start." He ran a hand through his red hair, complaining, "I hate this kind of play."

"And she wasn't able to go to the net." Akane assumed.

"Oh, does Pinkie specialize in net play?" Kikumaru asked, immediately interested. "But Morioka-chan held her at the baseline."

'_Pinkie? Obvious reference to her hair, but couldn't you be a bit more original?'_ "She won one game, right? Her service games are always Serve and Volley."

"Saa…" Fuji smiled. "I'm afraid we missed that game since someone decided to punish us…"

"Fuji…" Tezuka's voice carried a warning tone.

—X—

"Please return to the court!"

Kimiko's legs begged her not to walk with them. They felt like jelly; she was sure they wouldn't support her weight. Halfway through the game, and she was already exhausted. However, she ignored her legs and forced herself to step back onto the court. '_Just a little longer…_' It was going to be over soon… wasn't it?

Was it?

Looking into Izumi's eyes, the second year realized that her senpai had no intention to end this quickly.

Her racket fell out of her hand and clattered onto the ground. Her hand was sweating so much that she had lost her grip. Her strength was so drained that she couldn't even hold it tightly enough so that she had a firm grasp on it. She bent to pick up the racket, only to drop it again. "Gomen…" she said to Izumi, who was waiting patiently to serve. She tried putting her racket into position, but it was too heavy, it dragged her hand down. She couldn't even lift it.

"Oiii….!" A voice suddenly called. "Kiimiii-chaaan…!"

'_I know that voice._' Her pale eyes darted around, trying to locate the source of the voice, but she couldn't find it. Before long, she found herself looking _up,_ to meet the eyes of someone perched perfectly comfortably on the top of the green wire fence.

"Bunta!" she exclaimed, shielding her eyes from the sun.

Several people at the court turned around to see what was going on. The Rikkaidai volley specialist waved at her. "Are you giving up already?" he asked with a grin. "How can you lose when all your techniques are copied from me?"

"_Copied_?" she cried in protest. "You _taught _them to me!"

"I did that because I thought you were going to Rikkaidai!" he pointed out, although the grin was still on his face.

"Hey, get down from there!" Oishi cried. "It's dangerous!" '_How did he get up there in the first place? Surely we would've noticed him climbing the fence…_'

"You should listen to him, Bunta." A low voice came from behind the fence.

"Hi Jackal!" Kimiko waved, acknowledging her cousin's doubles partner.

Marui jumped off the fence and into the court, landing as lightly as a cat. "You should be thankful, Kimi-chan," he said. His pants were covered with green flakes from where he sat on the fence; as the paint was so old it was peeling. "I took a bus all the way from Kanagawa just to see you." He brushed the flakes off.

Face to face, it was nearly impossible to tell the two apart. Kimiko was obviously shorter and her eyes slightly bigger in comparison, but besides that it was like looking in a mirror.

"You know, we could switch clothes," he suggested. "And I could win that match for you."

She poked his nose and giggled when he became cross-eyed for a split second. "I doubt you could beat her."

The match in the other court had paused. Sayaka jumped and rumpled her brother's hair. "Now I wonder why we don't look so similar. We're _twins_."

"Hmm… it is strange for cousins to look so similar," Inui muttered, consulting another one of his notebooks. "Oshitari Yuushi from Hyotei and Oshitari Kenya from Shitenhouji look nothing alike…" He looked up. "Fuji doesn't look like his brother either…"

"Oh, really?" the tensai asked with a smile.

"Ne, Kimi-chan," Bunta put his hand on her head, blowing a turquoise bubble. "Get out there and win this one, okay?"

"Oi… you…" Kaidoh hissed as he approached them. "Rikkaidai-teme, get out of our courts!"

"Hai, hai…" he replied easily. He began walking toward the door, before turning around. "You forgot this, Kimi-chan." He threw a small object over. She caught it, observing it strangely. Abruptly, she let out a laugh. It was a lollipop.

"Strawberry. You remembered." She unwrapped it, admiring the pink color and glad that Chupa Chups were small in shape. She didn't want a huge bulge poking out of her cheek while she was playing.

Marui made his way around the fence so that he could still watch her through the wire, joining his doubles partner.

"Sorry for making you wait." Kimiko said to her senpai as she got back into her position on the court. She shoved the lollipop into her mouth.

Her gaze sharpened.

"The look in her eyes changed…" Ryoma murmured.

"And we still can't figure out why Kimiko plays better with a lollipop in her mouth," Akane wiped the sweat off her neck with a towel. It was hot, and she had just finished a match. "Reina spent a week analyzing the components of a lollipop. Do you know how many sugar syrups are in there? Reina knows them all." She smiled. "The chemistry teacher thought she was mad; Reina entered the lab everyday with about 50 lollipops in her arms."

Izumi served, exactly like she did before. However, this time Kimiko caught up to the ball easily, and hit a fast return ace.

She giggled at the shock that appeared on Izumi's normally expressionless face, as well as on everyone else's features, extracting the lollipop for a moment. "Sorry, but I'm long from being done!"

"It's a psychological boost, I think." Akane continued. "She believes that when she has sugar in her mouth, it'll increase her stamina. It doesn't by much, really."

Izumi hit the ball to Kimiko's left, then to her right, then to her left again. '_You can't keep running forever…_'

However, Kimiko's returns were carrying topspin, and Izumi was having a hard time controlling them. She hit a straight shot to the right side, the ball going out by inches. Frustration clawed at her. She breathed, adjusting the grip on her racket. Kimiko's shots were messing up her ball control.

She couldn't make Kimiko run around anymore.

The pink-haired girl grasped her chance, hitting a cross shot to the corner. Izumi had to back up to reach that one; it was hit straight to the baseline. As she retreated, Kimiko used this time to quickly approach the net. When Izumi hit the ball back she returned it with a powerful, two hand backhand.

'_It's a powerful shot…_' Izumi thought. '_But I can see its path; I know exactly where it's going to land._' She reached that area, interpreting the ball's path correctly.

Suddenly, the ball hit the net…

The speed changed…

…and the ball went in.

"40-love."

"She aimed for the net, didn't she?" Kikumaru asked, his eyes wide.

"Ah," Fuji answered. "And increased the power of her shot so that the cord ball would go in."

"But isn't Pinkie running low on stamina?" he questioned, confused. "How is she playing so well all of a sudden?"

"Notice her play style," Akane spoke up. "She's at the net, so she can minimize the length she has to run to the smallest possible. She's also feinting more often and setting up traps that don't require much stamina…"

Izumi nearly missed a ball that was hit into the net again.

"…and Izumi is falling for all of them…_"_

Izumi aimed for Kimiko's feet, so she would have to step back and retreat. ' _Then I won't let you get to the net…_' However, Kimiko twisted her wrist in such a way that she literally _scooped_ up the ball in mini-lob. Izumi had to run forward to get that one. Kimiko hit another cord ball, making Izumi lunge for it. Seeing her chance, Kimiko hit a cross shot to the other side. However, Izumi was back on her feet with surprising speed and managed to hit it back, winning a point.

"40-15."

"Seems the team has a lot of hidden talent, Akane." Tezuka said.

"So you noticed," She smiled and nodded, watching them began another rally. "Normal players would trip and fall after lunging for a cord ball like that," She inclined her head toward the dark haired girl. "But Izumi has an amazing sense of balance.

Just then, Kimiko hit a drop shot. Izumi ran forward, anticipating it. '_I won't get caught again._' There was plenty of time for her to reach it.

The ball bounced on the net and rolled across it.

"Tsunawatari." Bunta and Kimiko said in unison. "Tightrope Walking."

The ball dropped to the ground at the other end of the net, winning her the game.

"Game, Marui. 3 games to 2."

"Nice…" Bunta gave Kimiko a thumbs up from outside the fence. "Looks like you've grown up."

Izumi forced herself to breathe. '_Calm down…_' She could feel her heart beating in her ears. '_You still have a lead, calm down._' She knew how to beat Kimiko; she'd done it before. She was still a game ahead. It didn't matter that she had lost her service game, she would still win. The next game would be Kimiko's serve… '_She'll serve and charge for the net. That's her style, serve and volley._' Inhale. '_All I need to do is aim for her feet to break her run…_' Exhale. '_It'll be fine._'

'_Then why am I feeling so pressured?_'

Kimiko proved to have the upper hand in the next game. Although Izumi's shots hit areas near her feet with precision, Kimiko could just use the technique she did the last time: twisting her wrist to hit the ball without pausing in her run for the net. Her returns were weak, as twisting your wrist to hit the ball always lessened the power, but that worked to her advantage. She made sure the returns were just barely going over the net, attempting to make Izumi stumble for them and create opportunities. It worked well, and the score proved it.

"Game, Marui. 3 games all."

"Pinkie's on fire!" Kikumaru enthused, jumping up and down. Then he stopped. "Mou… doesn't that mean Morioka-chan's in trouble?"

Akane watched the dark-haired girl retreat to the baseline. "Actually, I doubt that," she said, and they all turned their eyes to Izumi. "I think she's going to start playing seriously."

"Eh? So she wasn't playing seriously?"

"Perhaps I ought to have reworded that," Akane backtracked. "She was playing seriously, but now Izumi is going to start playing _her_ tennis. Rather than rely on a strategy that she knows, in theory, would win against Kimiko, she's going to play her own style."

"Oh?" Fuji smiled, interested. "Why is she switching tactics all of a sudden?"

Akane 's expression turned solemn. "Remember when I told you that Izumi quit halfway through a match?"

They all nodded, curious and intent.

"Izumi knows she can't let her opponent take the lead. Once she loses the advantage, her tennis pretty much falls apart." Akane closed her eyes. "It's as if she can't take the pressure."

"The match that caused her to quit…" Fuji inquired. "Who was it against?"

Akane opened her cerulean eyes. "Me."

"I see…" Fuji remembered their conversation outside the hospital. '_ "It doesn't matter… Akane already hates me… ever since I quit…" _'

"I had her down 4-0 when she quit…" Akane said. "One of the reasons I put her against Kimiko in this practice match; I _wanted_ to pressure her. Kimiko's practically unstoppable when she's in _this_ state," She pointed her thumb towards the reddish haired girl. "When she has all her attention directed in the game, nothing short of an earthquake will break her focus." She shifted her gaze back to Izumi. "Izumi needs to learn to overcome pressure, or at least bear with it. The tournaments coming up will be more stressful and pressuring than ever."

The others silently contemplated the information.

"But it's rare to see Izumi resorting to her own style," Akane said, smiling again. "I haven't seen her tennis for a while." She brushed her hair out of her eyes, feeling the wind cool down her sweat drenched forehead. "You guys might want to see this; you're in for a treat."

Prior to the game, Izumi had wound her hair tightly around her head, securing it with a chopstick-like ornament. She now removed the hair ornament and let it fall to the ground. Her black hair tumbled down to her waist; a dark waterfall.

The wind gently blew the strands around her, like black ribbons unraveling.

"Won't that get in the way?" Kachiro asked.

Akane shook her head. "It's another psychological change. Equivalent to…" She paused, glancing outside to the two Rikkaidai players watching the match. "Tennis players removing their lead power wrists… or something similar. Perhaps Izumi feels that she has just let go of her restraints…"

Izumi tossed the ball up, jumped, and served.

'_Jumping serve?_' Kimiko thought as she ran for it. '_It's so ordinary it seems like a trick._' Her racket made contact with the ball, and it felt as ordinary as it looked. She returned it easily. Suddenly she gasped.

The ball seemed to slow down when it reached Izumi. Kimiko blinked her eyes—twice—perhaps her return wasn't that fast? The ball was flying towards her again, aimed at the left corner. '_Okay, let's try this..._'Although she was tired, she put power into her two-handed backhand. It was a fast return, she _knew_ it was fast. This time…

'_No…_'

The ball seemed to slow again. Izumi calmly returned it—a simple return. '_How is this possible!_' Kimiko forced even more power into her next shot.

"Out! 15-love!"

She swiped the sleeve of her T-shirt over her forehead, taking the lollipop out of her mouth. It had shrunk by a great deal. The inside of her cheek has a coat of sugar over it; it felt stiff so she licked at it. The wind blew the short pink strands of her hair. She shivered, feeling the cold chill on her skin.

Something about Izumi's movements was confusing her. Her shots were perfectly ordinary… were they? She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but Izumi seemed to be moving at a _slower_ pace, while still keeping up with the ball. '_That's not possible!_' She shook her head to clear herself of her troublesome thoughts.

Izumi served again. '_If I hit shots with topspin,' _the pink second year thought,_ 'she wouldn't be able to control the ball as well… so she can't do whatever she's doing now._' Kimiko swung her arm in a forehand, trying to put a harsh spin on the ball. But Izumi still managed to return it easily. Strange, she thought, as the ball slid by her left leg. Very very strange.

Kimiko decided to focus on her movements rather than the ball for the time being. She could afford to lose a few points if it put her mind at rest. Izumi's movements were… different, somehow.

"30-love!"

Yes, they were different. It wasn't so much the shots she made; it was the _way_ she made them…

"40-love!"

At that moment, she realized something. All the shots she was making...—she hit another powerful one as a final test; yes! It was true!—were coming back devoid of spin and power, no matter how much spin or power she put onto the shot. She glanced up to observe the way she moved once more… her strokes were longer and more elaborate, she ran with longer steps… her movements were almost _graceful_…

"Is she…" Kikumaru's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "_…dancing…_?"

"Yes."

He let out an impressed whistle.

Fuji felt Akane's words echo in his head. '_ "[Chiharu]'s downright clumsy, but except for maybe Morioka Izumi, you'll never find a more graceful person on the courts…_"'

Akane smiled. "You see how she moves her arms?" They all watched Izumi make a stroke at the ball, her arm curving, swinging the racket in a circle. "She uses her entire arm and the movements of it to absorb the power of the ball, so there is no reflex power coming from her racket, nor strain on her wrist. Her technique completely neutralizes what power or spin is on the ball."

Ryoma watched. "Even her steps seem to be on a beat." he noted. He turned his eyes to Kimiko for a second. Comprehension dawned on him. "I see…"

"See what, Ochibi?" Kikumaru grasped a hold of him again.

"Look at her steps."

Fuji had his eyes open, concentrating on Izumi's footwork. The ball left her racket. '_One, two, three, four, five_,'the ball came back,_ 'six_,' the ball bounced, _'Seven,' _She ran forward, '_Eight._' "Now I realize…" he said with a smile, his eyes closing. "That truly is amazing."

"Fuji, not you too!" Kikumaru whined. "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

"Count the beats," Akane told him. She began snapping her fingers in a rhythm. "One _two_ three _four_ five _six_ seven _eight_."

"The ball's always bouncing on the sixth beat!" Kikumaru cried, finally understanding. "And she's always hitting it on the eighth beat!" Then he pointed to Kimiko. "She's doing it too! She's always hitting the ball on the fourth beat! Why doesn't she ruin the rhythm so Morioka-chan can't use it anymore?"

"She can't," Akane said. "If she hits the ball early, it'll hit the net, if she hits it late, it'll go out. Izumi is a counter puncher, and now she's waiting for Kimiko to make an error.

"Unlike Kamio from Fudomine, who increases his rhythm so his opponents can't keep up," Tezuka said. "Morioka _forces_ them _into_ her rhythm."

Kimiko's next shot hit the net, and Izumi took the game.

"Game, Morioka, 4 games to 3."

"Don't mind, Kimi-chan!" Marui Bunta beckoned to her. When she walked over, he poked her nose through the fence. "You'll get her in the next game."

"I don't think I can do this! She's forcing me to make exact shots at exact movements; she's not predicting my next move, she's making it for me! How am I supposed to—" Her word rush was abruptly cut to a halt when her cousin put a finger to her lips.

"Hey, don't worry," He grinned. "It's your serve next, remember?"

Kimiko looked at him blankly for a moment. A smile then slowly formed on her face. "Yeah," she said. "It is."

"Once you're at the net, no one can beat you and you know it," he said confidently, blowing a bubble. Kimiko tried to pop it with her finger, but her cousin pulled away just in time and popped it in his mouth. "Except me, of course." He winked. "Go get her, Kimi-chan."

"Thanks." Kimiko walked to the baseline of her court, picking up a tennis ball and bouncing it on her racket a few times. She squeezed the ball and tossed it in the air. After her racket made contact, she rushed for the net.

Izumi replayed a tune in her head, moving to it naturally. She could almost _hear_ the music playing. Her steps were perfectly on beat as she hit the ball.

Kimiko's return was again forced into the rhythm.

The rally could've become a percussion accompanist for a 4/4 piece of music; it was that precise in its rhythm.

As Izumi hit the ball again, Kimiko winked at her. "That style won't work against me anymore!" She brought her racket forward in a drop shot. '_If I hit a cord ball, the ball will slow down, and the rhythm will be broken!_' She hit the ball and watched its path.

It bounced on the net.

'_I got it!_'

Suddenly, Izumi appeared out of nowhere. The ball was slammed into the ground behind Kimiko.

"0-15."

"Ne, wasn't that a cord ball?" Katsuo asked. "Didn't it break the rhythm?"

Fuji shook his head. "Morioka seems to have controlled the power and spin of the ball in her returns, so even the cord ball was on beat. The ball bounced on the net at exactly half a count. One, _two_, three-_da_-_four_."

"Then why doesn't Marui-senpai hit Tsunawatari?" Kachiro asked. "Wouldn't that work?"

"In a way of techniques, Izumi is much like Tezuka," Akane said, glancing at the stoic captain. "Almost like the Tezuka Zone, Izumi controls the spin and power on the ball so that it is _always_ on the rhythm. Tsunawatari would probably end up taking exactly two counts, before falling off the net on the third because of the spin Izumi put on it."

"Morioka-senpai's zone?" Horio echoed. "Morioka Zone…?"

Akane laughed. "Why not? We never bothered to name it."

"Ah!" Kachiro suddenly cried, pointing. They all watched Kimiko bring her racket into another drop shot. "There she goes! Tsunawatari!"

Just as Akane predicted, the ball rolled across the net for exactly two counts before falling. Kimiko immediately ran back after interpreting a cross shot. '_Damn it,_' she thought as she struck the ball. '_I need to put on a stronger spin. All I need to do is make the ball stay on the net for half a second longer. Half a second is enough to break the rhythm!'_

She put even more spin on her next drop shot, but everything was still on beat. '_Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!_' In frustration, she placed both hands on her racket and hit a forehand slice.

'_Hold on… the impact felt weird…_'

The ball hit the net, the spin so powerful you could hear it brushing against the net.

Izumi relaxed, as she had won this point.

All of a sudden, the ball began to travel _up_. All of them gaped silently at it. The spin was so great that the ball rolled itself vertically up the net. It teetered dangerously, threatening to fall on either side.

And then it fell.

"15-all!"

The court was silent. All onlookers were awestruck. Even Kimiko was shocked at what just happened. Then, gradually, whispers filled the court.

"Did you see that shot?"

"How did she do that?"

"It broke Morioka's rhythm!"

"Of course it did, it rolled _up_ the net!"

Jackal turned to his doubles partner. "You didn't teach her that shot, did you?"

Bunta clutched at the green wire fence, a grin on his face. "Nope. She figured that one out herself." He chuckled. "Heh. Kimi-chan, you have really grown up."

"Izumi-senpai!" Kimiko called, vaguely out of breath. She grinned, holding out a victory sign. "Am I not a genius?"

—X—

Maybe it was shock at seeing a near impossible shot being performed, or perhaps it was disbelief that her rhythm had been disrupted, but Izumi lost three consecutive points, allowing Kimiko to take the game and tie the score at 4. She made several unforced errors in the next game, however, she seemed to get a grip on herself, and reinstate her rhythm, or, as Horio named it, "Morioka Zone", and turn the tables on the game, winning it after reaching a deuce.

"Game, Morioka. 5 games to 4."

Ryoma twisted his cap to the back of his head, then back again. "Seems that shot was a one-off…"

Akane nodded in silent agreement. Kimiko had tried to hit that amazing forehand slice, but she couldn't achieve the effect it had the first time. She had now stopped trying to use that shot. Smart of her to realize that she couldn't rely on a lucky shot as her strategy. However, Tezuka felt that it was a bit of a pity that both Inui and Reina were watching the other game. No one else would be able to construct a menu to teach her how to master that shot for future use. He made a mental note to separate the two data specialists in the future.

"But Kimiko's still working through a way to ruin the rhythm. She has a plan," Akane said, smiling. "I can tell… When Kimiko gets that look in her eyes, it means she'll break the seal, no matter what it is." They all looked at the short second year. Her lavender eyes were sparkling.

"She really loves tennis…" Fuji murmured.

Unexpectedly, Izumi's shot hit the net, leaving her dumbstruck.

"0-15!"

"Ne, did Morioka-senpai just miss?" Katsuo asked.

Akane was frowning. "That's not right. Izumi has ball control that rivals Reina's. She'll occasionally hit the ball out of bounds, but to hit the net on an easy shot like that is just… not like her."

"Besides, isn't it still in her rhythm zone?" Kikumaru pointed out.

"Maybe… that's why…" Ryoma murmured.

"Eh? What do you mean, Ryoma-kun?"

He didn't answer and concentrated his eyes on the game.

_Pok. _The ball hit the net again. Izumi looked at her racket strangely.

"0-30!"

Ryoma's eyes narrowed. "It's a twist kite."

"What?"

"I understand," Akane suddenly said. "Kimiko's been hitting twist kites so that Izumi is missing the beat by a fraction of a second."

"Twist… kite?" Kachiro enunciated. "As in… Ryoma-kun's Twist Serve?"

"Ah," Fuji said, his train of thought following theirs. "When the ball is flying towards your face, you can't help but move out of the way a little. It's human instinct, and it's being used against her here."

'_Looks like she learned a thing or two from Suzume…_' Akane thought with a smile. "When Izumi moves out of the way, she misses the beat by a bit. She's now trapped in her own rhythm. And there's another one of her weaknesses," The clouds blocked out the sun for a moment. "Izumi concentrates too much on her own play; she doesn't pay enough attention to what her opponent is doing." Akane looked up at the sky, noticing the dark clouds that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. "Oh, are we in for some rain? This wasn't in the weather broadcast…"

"But Marui's counter-technique comes with a price." Tezuka said.

"Yes," Akane closed her eyes for a brief second. "She should be at her limit now. There's no way she can keep putting twist kites on those balls after chasing them halfway down the court. Her stamina is pretty much done."

"Game, Marui. 5 games all!"

Izumi tightened her grasp on her racket. She had to bring the advantage back to her side, or it would become likely that she would lose the match. '_I didn't think I'd have to use this in a practice match, but here goes._ _I haven't used this in a while…_'

Kimiko hit a twist serve, intent on breaking the rhythm before it even began. Izumi returned it without attempting to control the spin. The rally went on until Kimiko put a topspin on a ball that she aimed to the baseline.

Izumi saw her chance.

She caught up with the ball. Suddenly, she spun a 360 degrees turn on one foot, her hair swooshing around her. The momentum gathered from the twirl added even more spin onto the ball. Kimiko ran for it, but as she swung her racket, she missed the ball completely. The shot dropped to the ground quickly and had a very low bounce, almost as tiny as one would expect from a drop shot.

For a second time that day the court was completely silent.

After the onlookers got over the initial shock, the voices began. Gradually, murmurs filled the crowd once more.

"Whoa… sugoi…"

"That shot was nearly as awesome as Marui's."

"Hell, I knew Morioka could dance, but to put that in tennis…"

Fuji chuckled. "Izumi… You just can't stop dancing."

"Haven't seen that one in a while. That's Izumi's signature move," Akane said approvingly. "'Whirlpool'."

"Whirl…Pool?" The freshman sounded out the name in unison.

"She spins her body to put more topspin on the ball so that it drops quickly and has a low bounce." she explained. "It's also a jazz step similar to a pirouette."

"Hmm…" Kikumaru reflected on the rally before, remembering where Izumi had lunged for the drop shot. But instead of falling, she crossed her legs and rebounded in the opposite way. "Now I know why she has an amazing sense of balance. It's from dancing!"

"If Chiharu's our 'Miracle', then that makes Izumi…" She smiled. "Dancer."

"Ah, there it goes again!" Kachiro cried. "Whirlpool!"

—X—

Soon afterwards, the ball slid by Kimiko's leg. It was an easy shot to return, but she couldn't lift her arm. Her racket fell to the ground.

"Game and Match, Morioka, 7 games to 5."

Bunta smiled. "Great job, Kimiko."

To say Kimiko dragged herself to the net to shake hands would be an understatement. Her shoulders were slouched; even keeping a straight posture was too tiring. This made her seem shorter than ever. She wasn't even aware that she finished her lollipop until the stick dropped to the ground from her mouth, no candy left on it. She forced her last bit of strength into lifting her hand in order to shake Izumi's.

"It was a good game…" Izumi said quietly.

Kimiko barely had enough energy for a nod. Her legs suddenly buckled under her weight.

"Kimiko-san!" Izumi caught her under the arms, supporting her weight. Akane ran on to the court and helped Izumi carry Kimiko on a bench where she could rest. '_It's exactly like last time._'

"Ano… Izumi-senpai…" Kimiko said, her eyes cast on the ground.

"Yes?" Izumi leaned in closer.

"I'm sorry… but could you leave me alone for a while?"

The black haired girl took a step back, feeling slightly stung. Her lips parted a little in shock. She dipped her head and closed her lips, walking back to the court without saying another word.

"Great game, Morioka-chan!" Kikumaru bounced over, handing her a towel. "Congratulations on winning!"

Izumi took the towel and rubbed at the sides of her cheek and her chin, where sweat was dripping down. She didn't smile, nor did she acknowledge her victory. It was as if she had lost. Her voice was bitter when the only words she uttered were, "Great. Now another person hates me."

"Izumi-san…" Fuji said. "Marui-san wouldn't hate you for winning her in a game. Someone always has to win in a game." '_She really does think that everything is more severe than it actually is…_' He placed his hand lightly on her shoulder. She flinched at the contact. He removed his hand instantly, frowning slightly; had he perhaps overstepped the line?

"He's right," Akane appeared next to her once more. "Give Kimiko a bit of time. She'll be fine by tomorrow; all cheery and smiley and making little poses at you." She turned and grasped Izumi by the shoulders, like she did when Izumi first returned to the team. "Izumi, that game was amazing. I'm proud of you, and honestly happy to have you back on the team."

"…thank you…" How does one reply to something like that? Izumi avoided eye contact.

"Hoi! Here!" Kikumaru was holding something shiny in the air. She blinked and recognized it as her hair ornament. It was shaped as a tree branch, with jewels dangling off the ends to represent flowers.

"Arigato, Eiji." She took it back from him, her fingers brushing against his.

"Hmm… I think I like your hair down better…" Kikumaru said after scrutinizing her. "It suits you more. Don't you think so, Fujiko?"

Fuji smiled his trademark smile. "Yes, I do."

'_Okay, I am going to put my hair up __right now_.'

Izumi put the long ornament between her lips as she wound her hair in a knot behind her head, ignoring Kikumaru's protests—"but you look so nice with your hair down!"—"Akane, could you help me put it in the knot?" she asked, holding up her hair with one hand and handing her the ornament with the other. It was a fairly Japanese hair style; a 'chopstick' through a knot, with the excess hair hanging down - almost like a messy bun, though it was a bit troublesome to do on one's own. She always had to get up early if she wanted to wear her hair this way.

"Umm… I don't really have much experience with this kind of thing," Akane admitted. "Ponytails are the extent of my knowledge with hair styling."

"I'll do it!" Kikumaru took the ornament from her before she could object, examining the knot that she had made. "Umm… let's see… I remember my sister made me help her once… I think it was like this…" He pushed the ornament in her hair and fished around until he found an exit in the tangle of her hair. "There!"

Izumi removed her hands from holding her hair up, and her hair fell down again, the ornament clattering on the ground. She picked it up and rewound her hair into the knot.

"Ah, gomen," Kikumaru said sheepishly. "I guess I'm a bit out of practice."

"Maybe I could help?"

Izumi stiffened after hearing the voice. Could she refuse him? God help her, she handed him the ornament.

She felt his fingers smooth the strands of the knot down, and his warm breath on her neck. A shiver ran down her spine. She prayed he wouldn't notice.

Fuji gently placed the ornament in her hair, taking care not to even brush her skin with his; he did notice that she shivered slightly. He wondered why she seemed to fear physical contact. No, he she didn't fear contact—she had let Oishi help her stretch, right? Why did it seem to be him that she feared? "There." he said when he had finished.

Izumi let go of her hair and looked at him in surprise when it didn't tumble down. She didn't even feel him put the ornament in. Her fingers went around her hair where the ornament was; it was firmly tucked in. '_How did he put it in so… gently_?' "…t-thank you…"

He opened his eyes, but before he could meet his eyes to hers, she averted her gaze. She couldn't bring herself to look into those eyes, not now, not _now_… They were too blue, too pure, too dangerous to look at, yet she almost _wanted_ to see them, to fall into them, to be lost within their blue pigment, and that's what scared her more than everything.

"Hey, you guys…" Akane said. "Don't you think we should relocate?" She pointed to Court D. "I've been wondering why that match is so popular."

They all turned to see. Sayaka and Suzume's match was still ongoing, and it looked like it was an even harsher and exciting one than the one they just observed. Most of the regulars were there, not only because Sayaka was Momoshiro's twin, but also because Akane had called Suzume their 'Junior Ace'. And all the regulars had witnessed some intense rivalry between the two girls, which added to the excitement.

"Mou…" Kikumaru said, looking up at the sky. "I really hope it doesn't rain…"

"That's an unlikely wish." Akane replied wryly. The sky was darkening with the clouds that had gathered, and the wind had picked up.

"There's a storm out there that we shouldn't miss." Izumi murmured cryptically. Kikumaru, Ryoma and the freshman trio looked at her perplexedly, but Akane and Fuji understood her meaning and smiled.

"Right," Akane said. "Sayaka and Suzume: Two completely different styles, clashing it out on a tennis court."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**End Chapter Seven**

**A/N: **I don't want readers to skim the chapter if it's too long, because I try to put in a bit of foreshadowing in several actions/dialogues. So READ all of it.

Next up is Sayaka and Suzume! Working on a title at the moment…

Questions? Comments? Criticism? Flames? (X on the last one) REVIEW!


	8. Catfish and Sparrow

**Disclaimer: I only own the OCs; I don't own Prince of Tennis. But prince of tennis PWNs.**

Yes, I'm so sorry I haven't been updating and what-not. But those of you who don't review should be sorry you didn't review xDD. Just enjoy the next chappie.

**And I've gotten a few requests to make tiny biographies for my characters, because the names are hard to remember. I have posted this at the bottom of Chapter 3. Enjoy.**

I have to go study for finals now, so I won't thank individual reviewers. Just know that I LOVE your reviews and I'm really grateful.

This chapter is all about Sayaka (Momoshiro's twin) vs. Suzume (Club rebel with all the piercings)

**To Catch a Falling Star—Chapter Eight: Catfish and Sparrow**

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The air was hot, but now there was a chill in the atmosphere. Sayaka didn't know if it was because she was just nervous, or the temperature had actually changed. She ran a hand through her short black hair, and returned her brother's smile. However, when she stepped onto the court with Suzume, she felt like her confidence had been dented.

"Which?" Sayaka asked as she spun her racket on the ground, deciding who will take the first serve.

"Doesn't matter," Suzume replied, and Sayaka looked up in surprise. "You're a new fish; you can have the first serve. I'll win either way."

The racket was still spinning. She grasped it in her hand, stopping its rotation abruptly, feeling a growl of anger in her throat. "What did you say?!"

Suzume had already walked to the baseline. She tossed her deep red hair over her shoulder in a careless gesture. "Are you going to serve, or are we just going to stare at each other?"

The black-haired girl was squeezing the tennis ball so hard she was surprised it didn't burst. '_So much for not getting provoked._' She threw it above her head and served a powerful overhand served.

The return shot by her head, so close she could feel it whip through her hair.

"0-15!"

She didn't even have time to react.

Suzume smirked. "Is that the best you've got?"

She tightened her grip on her racket in anger. Throwing up the ball, she hit it with even more power than before.

The return was equally fast, equally powerful.

"0-30!"

'_Hmm_…' Despite her fury and shock, she let out a smile. '_Not bad… so is this what Take-nii was talking about?_"

Two points later, Suzume took the game.

"Oi… Sayaka, you could at least win a point!" Momoshiro complained.

Her next four return aces shut him up.

"Game, Momoshiro. 1 game all!"

"They're still testing each other out…" Chiharu murmured. "The rallies will start in the next round…"

"Oshiro-senpai…" Momoshiro slowly said.

She turned her amber eyes up to him questioningly.

"That is… it is _safe_ for Sayaka to be playing her, right?"

Amber eyes lingered on the black-haired girl, before shifting to her opponent. "Umm… It's never safe to be playing against Suzume-chan…"

"What do you mean?" Oishi's eyes widened, his mind set in worry-mode. "What do you mean by "not safe"?"

Momoshiro, however, understood her meaning. He and Fuji-senpai were the only two regulars that managed to get a glimpse of Suzume's potential during tryouts. At that time, her opponent was even a girl from the tennis club, and yet she forfeited halfway through to match. '_Her tennis… is frightening…_' He clenched his hand into a fist, suppressing his urge to pull Sayaka out of the match immediately.

"But don't worry…" Chiharu tried to reassure him. "I'll stop the match if Suzume-chan starts getting too dangerous. She'll listen to me."

Momoshiro nodded, though he still felt a bit apprehensive. "Oh, that's right," He suddenly remembered. "I've been wondering about this for a long time. Why does Kimura only listen to you? She's always so obedient when it comes to you…"

A small smile appeared on her face. "I can't tell you that," she replied simply. "That's between me and her."

"If Sayaka listened to me half as much as Kimura listened to you, she wouldn't be out there playing against her." Momoshiro grumbled.

Sayaka served again, and when Suzume hit a fast return, she caught up with it and made a cross shot. Suzume returned it and approached the net. When the ball came flying back, she drew her arm back in a large swing and hit a powerful forehand.

"Sayaka, watch out!"

She ducked instinctively, and the ball shot by the area her head was a moment ago.

"0-15!"

The ball bounced high and over the green wire fence.

Her heart was beating frantically. Judging by the force of the bounce, if she had ducked a fraction of a second later, it would've knocked her out cold. "Is that the way you play tennis?!" Sayaka bit out angrily. "By aiming for the other person?"

Suzume smirked and didn't answer.

'_Damn it!_' she thought as she served again. '_She's winning me psychologically already! I have to calm down, CALM DOWN!_'

The return shot carried topspin. Sayaka brought her racket down to hit it back, but when the ball bounced, the course changed and it flew towards her face. Her heart skipped a beat. '_Twist kite._' She moved out of the way, but managed to maneuver her racket so that it hit the ball. Upon impact, she realized that she missed the sweet spot on the racket. Her shot hit the net.

"0-30!"

"Kimura's tennis…" Oishi murmured, awestruck. "Sugoi… she actually _aims_ for the openings Momoshiro-san creates instinctively. Momoshiro-san's instincts are being used against her."

"Call her Sayaka; it's getting confusing." Momoshiro told him.

"But then..." Kaidoh said. "This is the kind of tennis she should be able to counter…"

"What's that, Mamushi?! Why do you say that?"

"Shut up and watch the match, you idiot!"

"You think you're so cool since you've seen her tennis style before I have?!"

"Idiot! She's _your_ twin! You should know things like that!"

"Oi, you two!" Oishi stepped between them. "You're going to miss it if you don't watch closely!"

Suzume hit a drop shot that Sayaka dove for. '_I've got you now…_' She lobbed the ball over Sayaka's head… _'What!_'

Sayaka's back arched gracefully as she did a back flip, pushing herself off the ground. Suzume wasn't even aware of Sayaka returning the ball until she heard it smashed into the ground behind her.

She landed as lightly as a cat. (Even more lightly than Marui Bunta when he jumped off the fence.)

"I'm only going to say this once," She glanced at her brother with a grin. Then she returned her gaze to Suzume's face and pointed a triumphant finger in her direction. "Don."

"15-30!"

For a moment he was utterly speechless. "Sayaka… you…" His face broke into a wide smile, despite the fact that she stole his catchphrase. "I can't believe it. You play acrobatic tennis."

"Idiot…" Kaidoh murmured. "You should know. She was on the gymnastics team."

"What did you say, Viper?!"

"What, you didn't hear me?! I said you're an idiot!"

"Now, now…" Kawamura and Oishi pulled them apart forcibly. "If you guys are going to argue, you'll miss the whole match."

"And you don't want to miss it. Kimura-san aims for openings created by Sayaka-san's own instincts, but Sayaka-san's reflexes allow her relocate her blind spots." Inui muttered. "But one can only relocate these blind spots, not remove them. These two tennis styles constantly cancel each other out."

Sayaka's sinewy body flipped and curved through the air, bending as if her bones were elastic. Suzume blinked, miscalculating the next few shots entirely. It was nearly impossible to tell how Sayaka hit the ball and at what timing, as all this was concealed by her elaborate movements. She easily sealed off the game after a score of 40-30, and the following game as well.

"Game, Momoshiro! 3 games to 1."

Momoshiro cheered loudly for his sister, turning with a triumphant glance at Suzume. His grin disappeared. He didn't like the glint in Suzume's eyes…eye. Like a tiger stalking her prey. "Oi… she doesn't look like someone who's two games behind…"

"Suzume's adroitness is to be venerated." Reina told him.

He gave her a blank stare. "Was that Japanese? No… that was _not_ Japanese; Martian, maybe..."

"Her ability to remain calm under pressure is to be admired." Inui translated.

"Sayaka-chan's movements are unpredictable, confusing her opponent with all the flips and turns," Chiharu said. "But Suzume-chan was never one to calculate and come up with strategies. That's Reina's job," She observed the red-haired girl closely. "In the end, Suzume-chan will stop looking at Sayaka's movements and go entirely for the ball. That's when things start getting hazardous."

Sayaka's hands supported her as she flipped backwards. She allowed her empty hand—her left hand—take most of the weight. Suddenly, the ball was smashed into the ground, dangerously close to her left hand. She jerked it away reflexively. However, now her right hand—the one holding the racket—was supporting her weight. The awkward feeling of the racket handle being pressed into the ground caused her to lose her balance and fall. She managed to land on her feet, but wasn't fast enough to reach for the ball.

"15-0!"

The strain had taken its toll on her wrist; she could feel the ache creeping up her arm for a brief moment. She moved it back and forth experimentally, clenching and unclenching her hand.

Oishi signaled frantically to the second year that was the referee. "Time!"

When Sayaka walked over to the bench, Oishi reached for her hand and began examining it, feeling along the bone. "Does it hurt?"

"No, not at all."

"She's lying." Momoshiro said bluntly.

She glared, her purple eyes meeting his. "And how would you know?!"

He placed a hand on her head, a gentle smile coming across his features. "We're twins, remember?"

"Maybe you should stop now," Oishi said. "Your wrist—"

"I'm fine!" She yanked her hand away. Without looking back, she picked up her racket and entered the court.

"Momo," Oishi said. "Can you stop her?"

He chuckled. "She wouldn't listen to me. Sayaka was never one to back down from a challenge."

Oishi turned his eyes back to the court. The determined expression on her face was one he had seen many times. "I think it runs in the family."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Momoshiro replayed the last rally in his mind, over and over, trying to figure out why Sayaka had not landed smoothly. He remembered the ball had been smashed very close to the hand supporting her weight, maybe close enough to trigger an instinctive response? "Oshiro-senpai… Did Kimura just _aim_ for Sayaka's hand?"

Chiharu looked down at her hands. "I almost hope she did…"

"What?!" Momoshiro looked at her in disbelief. "Why… why do you say that?" He bent down so he was eye level with her and tried to suppress the anger in his voice. He didn't realize how threatening he looked at that point. "Why do you want Sayaka hurt?!"

Chiharu stepped back, her eyes wide. "I didn't mean…"

"Momo!" Oishi moved towards him, but before he could do anything a tennis ball flew by and hit Momoshiro on the top of his forehead.

"Ow!" He rubbed the spot that was injured, looking up to see Suzume glaring at him with a contemptuous look on her face.

"What were you trying to do to Oshiro-senpai?!"

He was shocked. He could almost feel her eyes burn into his even though they were 20 meters apart. This time, there was no mirth in her eyes, no taunting tone in her voice. It was pure, harsh anger.

"0-30!"

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu said, holding up her hands. "It's okay…

Suzume gave him another filthy look before continuing the game.

"Interesting…" Inui murmured. "This relationship between Oshiro and Kimura is enough for her to sacrifice a point…" He jotted some notes down. "Care to elaborate, Oshiro?"

Momoshiro was also looking at her expectantly. '_Kimura's always aloof and indifferent… except when it comes to Oshiro-senpai…_'

"It's a really, really long story…" Chiharu said tentatively. "But it's sort of personal… If Suzume-chan hasn't told anyone, I don't see any reason to," She ran a hand through her blue curls. "If you really wish to know, ask her yourself."

"Then could you at least explain why you wished that Kimura had aimed for Sayaka?!" Momoshiro's patience was wearing thin.

Chiharu spoke softly. "Suzume-chan may be a bit of a wild card, but she does have her morals. She would never attack another person using tennis—" She ignored the indignant noises Momoshiro was making and how he was pointing to the bump on his forehead. "—Her style, as Inui-san has said, consists of aiming for her opponent's blind spots that are _created_ by themselves. It's instinctive for her; she doesn't even really analyze their moments. You remember the first two games?"

"Yeah…" Momoshiro said, thinking back. "All of her hits were return aces. And then all of Sayaka's returns were aces too."

"She did it to see how Sayaka-chan would react…" Chiharu said. "Her mind memorizes the places Sayaka seems to favor and the places she doesn't. And she does attack, but not directly. She attacks the areas _around_ her opponent…"

Momoshiro had a brief flash of that other girl Suzume was playing during tryouts. "That's what happened there! Osaka forfeited after that!"

The air was getting colder. She shivered. "Osaka had a weak ankle from a previous accident. Suzume didn't know about it, but she could _see_ it. She could sense it in the way that Osaka moved. And she deliberately went for the spots around Osaka's ankle." Her amber eyes caught his expression. "It's just her style That's it. On the court, she would never try to injure someone on purpose."

Oishi turned his head over, listening to their conversation. "But… why would Osaka forfeit?"

"Fear," Inui said, scribbling yet another note down in his notebook. "For example, say you injured your wrist in a car accident. Afterwards, if someone made an aggressive grab at your wrist, you'd immediately think back to that car accident and pull away instinctively. Physical wounds heal faster than memories," His pen paused on his paper as he looked up again. "Kimura's tennis must have invoked memories of her injuring her ankle."

"Inui-senpai, I like it how you can explain things so _concisely_ and _clearly_." Momoshiro said; his voice deliberately loud.

Reina's eyes narrowed. "My apologies if you consider my verbalization of language circumlocutory, for I may be loquacious in my articulation, however if you were unsuccessful in possessing so much fatuity, you would discover my words less recondite, and an indirect altercation of acrimony would be avoided." She tossed her head with dignity.

No one even attempted to understand that one.

While they had been talking, Suzume had begun playing more aggressively. Her shots were pinpointed to areas next to Sayaka's left hand, the hand that she landed badly on. Sayaka flipped to the side, but as the ball came close to her hand again, she jerked away and lost her balance. She flinched as most of her weight shifted on her wrist and fell.

"Game, Kimura! 4 games to 3!"

"Damn!" Momoshiro swore under his breath before crying out in concern: "Sayaka! Are you okay?!"

"Stop!" Oishi said, signaling to the referee again. "Time!" He turned to Momoshiro's twin, who was walking towards the bench. There were scrapes and scratched on her arms and legs from where she had fell. She rotated her left wrist and grimaced from pain. "You should forfeit before you injure it seriously." Oishi told her.

"I'm fine!" she insisted.

"Sayaka…" Momoshiro tried to take the racket from her right hand. "It's okay, you did well."

"No!" She pulled her right hand away from his. "I'm perfectly fine! I can still play!"

Oishi shook his head. "You can't keep supporting your weight with your left hand! You could seriously—" He stopped talking when Momoshiro stepped in front of his sister, facing her, as if trying to intimidate her with his size.

"Sayaka," he said firmly. "_Enough_."

"No! It's not!" she exploded at him. "For once, could you stop treating me like a _baby_?! I'm—"

"I don't want to see you get hurt." he said.

"I'm not your 'baby sister' anymore! I've never been! I was only born about five minutes after you, anyways!" She paused for breath. "And I've seen all your tennis matches and you should _understand_! I'm not done yet!"

"You're not me."

"No, I'm not!" she retorted. "I'm _better_. I've never stopped you in the middle of a match, not even that time you ran into the fence headfirst. Why can't you do the same for me?!"

He stared at her in astonishment. The rage, the passion, the sheer _determination_ carved onto her features… He understood. He understood completely. How many times had he felt that the same exhilaration amidst a match? He smiled and placed a hand on her head, like he always did. "All right. Go for it."

"Momo!" Oishi gave him a disapproving look, before turning back to his sister. "Sayaka-san, I cannot allow you to keep playing. Unless you can find a way to take the weight off your left wrist or stop playing acrobatic tennis, you may start doing permanent damage to your wrist." Oishi knew that Sayaka would be unable to change her style and revert to the 'normal' way of playing tennis. She could as easily detach her arms. _'Try asking Eiji to stop playing acrobatic tennis._' And there was no way Sayaka could use her right hand to support her weight; it was the hand holding the racket. Under the circumstances, he would force her to forfeit.

There was a spark in her eye that wasn't there before. She turned and bowed to Oishi, surprising him.

"Wha—?"

"Thank you, Oishi-senpai. You've just given me a bit of an idea. If it works, I will be able to take the weight off my wrist."

"Oi! Wait!" he called after her as she walked onto the courts, but she didn't turn around. He made a move to follow her.

"Stop, Oishi-senpai," Momoshiro said calmly.

"But..."

"Sayaka is very capable of taking care of herself," He grinned. "Besides… aren't you curious about what she's going to do next?"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

There was sweat running down her forehead. This was uncommon. No, there was more than sweat; she was actually feeling a bit tired. She was being pressured. Suzume couldn't help smiling. '_Finally, an opponent that can more or less keep up with me. I haven't felt like this since Oshiro-senpai…_' She swiped a hand across her forehead. The last three games she had won easily, due to the fact that Sayaka's left hand was weakening. '_Hopefully this isn't all she's got._' Feeling pressured felt good.

"Kimura!" Sayaka called to her. "Don't even try to make me give up!"

'_She's just asking for more, isn't she…_' Suzume served. Sayaka's reactions were slower; she was purposely shielding her left hand, and Suzume decided to make most of it. Again and again her shots were smashed into areas near Sayaka's supporting hand. "Your hand can't take all that weight!" she said in her taunting tone, but it carried a heavier warning.

"Then maybe it shouldn't have to!"

A huge gasp went through the crowd as everyone took in an astonished breath at the same time. Someone screamed. Sayaka hurled her racket into the air—high. She arched her back and performed two back flips, supporting her weight with both hands. On the final flip, she leaped upwards and grasped the racket perfectly within her right palm, doing a somersault before her feet finally found the ground.

The ball had disappeared.

Only the gentle brush of the ball as it slid by her ankle notified Suzume of its whereabouts.

Her mouth dropped. She had concentrated so much on Sayaka's acrobatics that she lost track of the ball completely. The rapid series of motions—flipping, spinning, twirling—caused Sayaka's blind spots to relocate so quickly that it was nearly impossible to aim for them… '_Nearly impossible…_' She served again, her gaze sharpening on Sayaka's left hand.

Again, Sayaka tossed her racket into the air, flipping backwards and pushing herself off the ground with _both_ hands. She caught her racket easily. The ball was smashed into the area behind Suzume before she even located the ball with her eyes. The crowd had fallen completely silent.

The normally talkative Reina only uttered two words. "RG…"

All the Seigaku regulars turned their eyes to her, perplexed. "What?"

Momoshiro grinned. "RG," he repeated. "_Rhythmic… Gymnastics_."

Stunned, everyone immediately thought of the graceful gymnasts they had seen on TV. The beautiful bending and twisting of their bodies on screen… Almost as if they were in another world entirely; a world where the laws of physics and human physiology did not apply. To bring that to the court had made Sayaka into an instant legend. Her acrobatics had completely silenced the crowd. They watched her in pure awe.

Inui's pen flew across the paper, almost mimicking the way Sayaka was flying across the court. "What apparatus does she use?"

"What?" Momoshiro looked baffled. "Hey, I know Watanabe-senpai can talk fancy, but Inui-senpai—"

"Hoop." Reina suddenly said. "Ribbon. Clubs. Ball. Rope." She looked hurt. "Is that concise enough, or must I recapitulate it into an even more epigrammatic and compendious explanation?"

"Uh… Watanabe-senpai…"

Inoue turned his eyes to Momoshiro kindly. "What she means is what does your sister use in competitions?"

"Use…?"

"Basically, 'what object is she throwing up in the air all the time?'" Akane's voice suddenly drifted in his ear, making him jump a mile.

"Ito-san!" Oishi exclaimed. "When did you get here?"

"Izumi's and Kimiko's match finished just a few minutes ago," she said. "I caught a glimpse of the last maneuver," She turned back to the black-haired boy. "Well, Momoshiro?"

"I don't know," he replied sheepishly. "I never really watched her perform or anything…"

"Rope and clubs." A new voice suddenly came from outside. "Sayaka was most skilled with those two." The tennis players all turned their heads to the person who spoke. It was Ichikawa Remi, captain of the former gymnastics team. Her eyes were shining. "When the gymnastics team was cut, Sayaka was the person that I felt the most regret for. Her talent in that sport was amazing. I know now that it won't be wasted."

The rest of the team that was watching Izumi and Kimiko's match joined them then. Izumi still looked a little upset.

"So who won the last match?" Momoshiro asked curiously.

Oishi nudged him. Sometimes he was just so inconsiderate. Couldn't he see that Izumi was feeling down...?

"Izumi won." Akane replied.

"Oh!" He looked surprised for a moment, then grinned at her. "Good job, senpai!"

Izumi murmured her thanks but didn't smile, which puzzled him.

Sayaka pulled out of a twist and reached outwards, her racket landing perfectly in her outstretched hand. She didn't even have to look. It was coming back to her; feeling her way through the movements, merging the next maneuver as part of the previous one. The ball was smashed along the center, winning her the last point.

"Game, Momoshiro! 5 games to 4!"

"Taking two games in one swoop? Nice, Sayaka!" Momoshiro called.

"WHOA! Sayaka-chan's waaay more acrobatic than me, nya!" Kikumaru said cheerfully. "Makes me kind of jealous, hee hee!"

Shiba was pressing buttons on her camera, going through the last few pictures. "Oh, they're all blurry. Momoshiro-san is fast when she's flipping around."

Kimiko titled her head to the side. "Doesn't she get dizzy?" She seemed a bit perkier now than she was a few minutes ago, even though she was still leaning heavily on Kikumaru's arm. Her cousin had departed for Kanagawa shortly after her game.

"No," Inui noted. "She alternates 'clockwise' and 'counterclockwise' spins in order to avoid lightheadedness. It's obvious that she has had professional training."

"Actually," the gymnastics team captain began, and everyone turned their eyes to her. "Sayaka's still playing it safe. I think that if she performed stunts more complex than what she's doing now, it would affect her aim. You should see her on a traditional floor mat. Her floor routine is amazing."

Suzume picked up the ball and turned it around in her hand, fingers stroking the furry surface. '_This is getting fun_.' Maybe it was time to crank it up a notch. She glanced over at her opponent. Sayaka was swiping a towel over her head and panting visibly. '_I wonder how much more she can take._' She had never faced an opponent that had a style quite like Sayaka's, and she didn't want the match to end when she was just beginning to enjoy herself. At the moment, Suzume wasn't giving the match 100% of her potential, but if Sayaka continued to play as well as she did in the last game, Suzume would be forced to give it her all.

The game had started again. Suzume served, allowing a rally to take place for a few minutes. Then she hit a drop shot, luring Sayaka closer to the net. Sayaka volleyed the ball back, performing a tiny somersault.

Suzume saw her chance.

She lunged forward and hit the ball back in a powerful, fast shot.

Sayaka was suddenly paralyzed. She couldn't react—then somehow she _did_, but she jumped away from the ball. The ball grazed her left wrist, leaving a painful streak of red.

Her heart pounded in her ears.

"15-0!"

Suzume bounced a ball onto the ground. "It's interesting how our instincts work, isn't it?" she told Sayaka with a smirk on her face. "If you had stayed where you were, the ball wouldn't have touched you at all."

The crowd had drawn in a collective breath. For some, it was the first time seeing how dangerous Suzume could be. To them, it seemed that Suzume was aiming for the injury on Sayaka's left wrist.

"That's not a 'sparrow'…" Momoshiro grumbled. "More like an 'eagle', if you ask me." (A/N: "Suzume" essentially means "sparrow" in Japanese.) He eyed the sparrow that was tattooed on Suzume's collarbone, which was looking fiercer and fiercer by the moment.

Another rally began, and Suzume hit another drop shot. Sayaka felt dread course through her body; she didn't want to reach for the ball when it was so close to the net, and so close to her opponent. Yet she couldn't afford to lose the point. She ran forward, her racket stretched outwards…

What happened next was hard to see. The only thing the crowd heard was the racket clattering onto the ground as Sayaka grabbed her left wrist.

"Sayaka! What happened?!" Momoshiro cried.

"The ball was nowhere near her left wrist this time though…" Ryoma muttered.

Inui nodded. "True, but my theory is that Sayaka imagined it was. Fear creates illusions." He paused in his writing and tapped his pencil against the page thoughtfully. "But that's not all…"

"Neuromuscular Facilitation." Reina said.

Half the regulars sweatdropped.

"Normally that would be a good thing…" Akane said, nodding. "But here it's being used against her."

"Excuse me…" Kachiro asked politely. "But what is neuromuscu-whatsis?"

"Muscle memory," Inui replied. "If you perform one movement over and over, your body muscles memorize the movement and next time you'll be able to perform it subconsciously and more accurately. That is why we make you swing your rackets over and over again." He readjusted his glasses as he continued to observe the game. "But Suzume has forced Sayaka to dodge so many of her shots that now Sayaka's body is dodging them on its own, even when she doesn't want it to."

"That's Kimura's style…" Tezuka said. "Most players aim for the spaces at the edge, or spaces where their opponent can't reach. We're all pretty much used to chasing after balls and hitting them back. We rarely come across an opponent that hits the ball straight _at you_."

Suzume smirked as she won another point. "I'm not aiming for anything…" she taunted. "There's only two moving objects—the ball and your opponent. I hit the ball towards the other moving object. It either hits them, or hits a blind spot newly created from when they tried to dodge it."

"She has Momoshiro's recklessness, Echizen's arrogance and Kaidoh's determination. That's our Suzume." Akane said.

Sayaka was panicking. '_My body is reacting completely on its own… I'm always reaching in the opposite direction…_' She yelped as the ball missed her head by a centimeter. As it bounced, she chased after it and swung her racket, missing the ball by inches.

"Game, Kimura! 5 games all!"

Sayaka kicked herself mentally. What was wrong with her? She suddenly felt scared, exposed. '_I can't hit the ball…_ _Why can't I hit the ball?! Why can't I just move towards it?!_' Almost angrily, she dove for it, again and again, but at the minute her racket reached the ball her mind went blank. Her heart speeded up, and her body veered away. She missed it every time.

"Game, Kimura! 6 games to 5!"

Suzume shook her head, disappointed. "It's over."

The black haired girl clenched her fists tightly, drawing blood where her nails dug into her palms. "Why am I such a _coward_?!" she criticized herself, anguish in her eyes. "Why can't I take control over my body and just go for the ball?!" Suzume served, and again, Sayaka froze, unable to move… Suddenly, she exploded to the right. The ball sliced her ankle.

"15-0!"

'_I can't do this…_'

"30-0!"

'_Am I… scared?_'

"40-0!"

Suzume sighed. '_And it was just beginning to get fun…_ _I'm surprised she lasted this long_.' It looked like the black haired girl was finally giving up. "It was fun while it lasted!" she called as she served for the final point.

Sayaka's eyes locked onto the ball. '_Don't move. Don't move, don't do anything._' Still, her body responded in fear. She bit down on her lip and closed her eyes, trying to anchor her feet to the ground. She imagined twin weights on her ankles. '_DON'T MOVE. DON'T MOVE._'

"Sayaka! Look out!"

At the last minute, her eyes shot open. She swung her racket.

It connected.

The ball arched upwards, a lob. It was a free chance ball. Easy.

However, the crowd was stunned to see Suzume drop her racket and watch the ball soar above her head, a smile on her face.

"40-15!"

"It's a little present." she told the stunned Sayaka, moving back into position. Sayaka was about to retort, but before she could open her mouth, Suzume held up a hand. "Don't take it personally. I just want the game to last a bit longer." Her deep red hair was sticking to her neck with sweat; she shook it out, droplets shining. "But you'll have to play better than that. I won't be giving away any more free points."

Sayaka grinned, but she was still in a dilemma. If you hit a shot at the last second, as she had done, you had no time to prepare. The last point had been luck… and sympathy on Suzume's part. '_I don't want the rest of my returns to be all lobs_.'

Suzume prepared to serve. '_I want to see how this turns out…_' she thought, strangely… happy. '_She was willing to get hit by the last ball in order to overcome her fear.'_ Suzume had never met anyone that would go so far to combat her tennis style, and somehow she… liked it.

"Time!" This time it was not Oishi that called, but Tezuka. "Momoshiro!" Momoshiro jumped, thinking the captain was referring to him, but noticed him beckoning to Sayaka and relaxed.

Sayaka walked up to him apprehensively. He was awfully intimidating.

"You've forgotten your style," he reprimanded seriously. "Suzume sealed off your style in order to make your tennis playing awkward."

"It's a factor that's inducing fear." Reina added.

Realization dawned on her. On the last few games, she hadn't been playing _her_ tennis. She hadn't even tried. She was so scared, she couldn't seem to move at all—sealing off her acrobatic style. '_That's why I felt so awkward…_'

"Tennis players cannot forget the way they play tennis. Once forgotten, they can no longer play." Tezuka nodded at her. "That is all. You play well."

Her face became red. The blush spread from her cheeks to her neck. She quickly walked back to the court.

"Aren't you lucky!" Kimiko popped up out of nowhere, her enthusiasm back. "Tezuka-buchou doesn't give advice or compliments to just anyone…" She giggled. "Last time he said something like that to Chiharu-senpai, and I swear: she wouldn't stop blushing for a week!"

Sayaka laughed and returned onto the court, feeling more cheerful. She could just imagine Chiharu's face as a red tomato and Tezuka being completely oblivious.

Suzume's eyes narrowed in anticipation of a challenge. Sayaka seemed to have regained her composure. Suzume jumped and served again, aiming at the area where the lines intersected. But the minute her racket came in contact with the ball, Sayaka was up and flipping through the air again. She sliced the ball and landed on her feet, leaping up again almost instantly.

"Let's see if you can handle this!" Suzume called. She leaped up as well and smashed the ball towards the still airborne Sayaka.

"Eek!" Kikumaru shielded his eyes and peeked through his fingers.

"Just watch me then!" Sayaka laughed. She tucked her whole body into a ball and somersaulted forward twice. On the last one, she snapped open like a jackknife and smashed the ball with all her might, causing it to shoot towards the ground in an almost vertical line.

"Jackknife, Sayaka style." she announced as she landed, winking at her brother.

"Hmm…" Suzume commented, reluctantly impressed. "Not bad for a new fish."

"Fish?" Kikumaru complained. "Mou, Sayaka is a cat nya!"

"Cat?" Suzume looked amused.

Sayaka took a moment to catch a breath. She flashed a grin in Kikumaru's direction. "I'll take that as a compliment!"

"I'm serving now…" Suzume said, giving her a head's up. "Let's continue, Namazu-chan…"

"Nama…zu?" Sayaka echoed. "Cat…fish…?"

Chiharu chuckled. "Suzume just gave you a nickname…" she said, loud enough for Sayaka to hear. "That means you've won her respect. Nicely done."

"How _do _you get her respect, anyways?" Momoshiro grumbled.

"No one has figured it out…" Chiharu said. "Suzume seems to have her own little rules…"

"Actually, only two people have Suzume's respect," Kimiko told them. "Chiharu-senpai and Tezuka-san. And now Sayaka does too…"

"Maybe she only respects those people that beat her in tennis?" Katsuo suggested timidly.

"How many people _have_ beaten her in tennis?" Horio asked.

"Two." Akane's voice carried a trace of bitterness this time.

"Oh. Who?" Horio continued to ask.

"Reina and Chiharu."

"Oh. So Ito-senpai didn't beat-aaarg!" Momoshiro elbowed him so hard in the ribs that he seemed to have fractured a few.

"But I obviously don't have her respect, since she casually insults me all the time." Reina took of her glasses and cleansed them with the edge of her t-shirt. "Maybe its how she communicates."

All of them stared at her. "Wait…" Momoshiro said slowly. "I actually understood that…"

She gave him a smug look. "Well, while my language may be flamboyant at certain circumstances, I panegyrize myself for being able to expatiate with breviloquence. I can be quite laconic."

Blink.

"Yes, I'm sure you can speak concisely at times, Reina," Akane said without looking at her. "You just choose not to in order to torture us."

"6 games all!" The referee's voice boomed loud and clear. "Tiebreak!"

"This is turning out to be a long match…" Fuji murmured. He glanced at the sky, noting the distance cry of thunder. "The weather is surely not in favor."

Both tennis players were playing to their best. Sayaka flipped, twirled, spun, and only landed for the briefest second, like a dragonfly stepping on the water. She cartwheeled twice before performing a handspring and grabbing her racket to hit the ball. In the air, her movements were so elaborate that they became too fast to see—she weaved herself through her former shape, and the crowd could only catch the ghost of her last maneuver.

"She's so…" Izumi said quietly, "…crippled."

Fuji looked at her. "That's interesting word choice. Why do you say that?" Sayaka, so graceful, so nimble, so flexible… crippled?

"Just look…" Izumi went on, the gaze in her eyes sad but full of admiration. They watched her do a triple salto with a full twist in the air, "She's so close to flying, so close… yet she doesn't have wings…"

Fuji just stared at her. Izumi said the strangest things, but something about them was just… _deep_. Deep, yes, and with a touch of melancholy.

Suzume too, played at 100%. Sayaka's jumping without a racket had left her vulnerable, and Suzume took full advantage of that. She hit the ball towards her, forcing Sayaka to do another spin, another flip to avoid it and therefore missing her chance to pluck her racket from the air. She definitely wasn't panting or sweating as much as Sayaka, nor was she half as stressed. She was completely calm, almost indifferent, which clashed with the way she was playing so aggressively. Her deep red hair shone violet in the flashes of lightning.

Thunder crashed, making them all jump.

"Deuce! 34-34!"

Neither of them wanted to give in as they stood there, breathing heavily. Finally, Suzume smirked at her and took out a small comb from her pocket. "This is the highest compliment I can give you…" she said as she began to comb her dark red hair.

"Is that another psychological change?" Momoshiro asked Akane.

"No." Akane's voice was urgent. "It's much worse."

Suzume was in the midst of splitting her hair the other way, covering up the _right _side of her face and leaving the left side exposed. Akane walked up to her. "Kimura, stop."

She ignored her.

Akane reached for the comb but Suzume slapped her hand away. "Don't you stop me." she spat.

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu's voice suddenly came before Akane's temper could flare up, and the blue-haired girl gently took the comb. "It's not worth it…"

Suzume gave her a sharp glare. For a moment her piercing green eye stared into Chiharu's gentle amber gaze, and then she tossed her head in annoyance. "Fine. Whatever."

"Besides…" Chiharu stopped as a tiny droplet of water fell on her nose. "…it's raining…"

The rain came down in thin, needle-like streaks, showering the regulars. They tilted their heads back and welcomed it, each droplet felt like life as it cooled of their burning skin. The crowd giggled and shrieked at the coming of the rain, shielding books over their head and running for the building.

Sayaka clasped her hand at the net. "That was fun." She grinned.

Suzume returned the smile. "Let's play again sometime, Namazu-chan."

"Hey, Chiharu." A male voice came from behind the fence. "I think she'll be okay. Thanks for looking after her."

She nodded. "I don't think you have to worry so much over her now, Kai-san."

"I do anyway."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"OI! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" Coach Ryuzaki's voice blasted, making the thunder seem like it was whispering. The regulars stopped in their tracks, halfway to the changing rooms. "We haven't announced the roster yet!"

"Ah. Our opening match is against Koishikawa High. We're announcing the roster a little early—"

"—as opposed to announcing it on the day of the match—" Momoshiro muttered.

"—so we can make necessary changes if need be." Oishi finished.

"All right, guys first: Doubles 2 will be played by Inui and Kaidoh."

"We got this one." Inui said, and Kaidoh grunted in agreement.

"Doubles 1 will be Oishi and Kikumaru."

"Yahoo!" Kikumaru jumped his friend. "Partners to the end, Oishi!"

"Singles 3 will be played by Echizen."

" 'Kay." He hid a satisfied smile.

"Singles 2, Kawamura."

"COUNT ON ME, BABY!"

"Singles 1, Tezuka."

"EEH?" Momoshiro made an indignant noise. "So Fuji-senpai and I aren't going to be playing?"

Sumire Ryuzaki just rolled her eyes at him before proceeding. "Girls: Doubles 2 was a tough decision, but right now we have this pair…" She squinted through the rainwater that had gotten in her eyes. "Ryuzaki and Komboi. That would be Sakuno and Aiko."

"Why can't I play singles?" Aiko burst out in English. Only a few people understood her. Echizen translated for Sumire.

"We don't doubt your ability, Aiko," Coach Ryuzaki replied patiently. "Right now we're just experimenting."

"Speaking of which, where is Sakuno?" The regulars looked around and shrugged.

"Doubles 1 will be Ito and Marui."

Kimiko and Akane exchanged a high-five.

"Singles 3 will be played by Kimura."

Momoshiro snickered. "Man I feel sorry for whoever has to go against _that_ sparrow."

"Singles 2, Morioka."

Izumi lifted her head and nodded her agreement.

"And Singles 1, Oshiro."

Chiharu too, nodded silently.

Coach Ryuzaki flipped to the back of the sheet of paper. "Now we have the mixed doubles. This is an entirely separate event. It's sort of like a miniature tournament on its own."

"Can we change the doubles pair for different matches?" Kikumaru asked.

"Yes," Oishi replied. "It's a test to see which school can come up with the best combinations."

"There are two mixed doubles. In our first round, we'll be sending Watanabe and Fuji as our mixed Doubles 2."

"Good luck understanding her, Fuji." Kikumaru whispered.

"And Doubles 1," Sumire smiled at the next two names on the sheet of paper. Momoshiro and Momoshiro."

They exchanged surprised glances. "All right sis, we're doubles!"

"So long as you don't hold me back."

"Hey!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Neh, Tezuka…" Fuji said as they were the last ones in the changing room. "What did you think of those matches?"

"There's a lot of places they need to work on."

Fuji chuckled. "So cold. But Kimura could've won if she didn't give up that point…"

"Maybe…" Tezuka replied. "But Momoshiro Sayaka seems to have her brother's extraordinary ability to adapt. You saw the way she brought the advantage back over to her side."

"Hmm… yeah…" Fuji smiled. '_Catfish are able to adapt to any harsh conditions, which is why they are found all over the world. The nickname Suzume came up with may have a deeper meaning than just being a play with the words 'cat' and 'fish'._

"All in all, the upcoming tournaments will be interesting.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Eight

Phew, that's done. xD It was fun… but I'm not sure where I'm going to go next. I want to speed up the plot a little. The first matches won't really be described, probably just a few lines here and there. I think sometimes there's more interest in the un-tennis parts of the story xD.

Reina was a fun character to make. She really helped me with the vocab portion on the SATs. If you can understand Reina, you're all set for SAT vocab. (Actually, I'm not even sure if I'm using the words in the right content anyways. F*CK SATs.)

REVIEW and be patient for the next chapter.

BTW: gotta luv the new PoT. Tis awesome. Anyone know when the new anime's coming out?


	9. Let it Rain

**Disclaimer: **POT owns me, but I don't own it. All that belongs to Konomi-san. I own the OC characters though.

Yes… I'm updating quickly this time. Surprised? You can thank me by leaving a review. I tried to reply to a lot of reviews left by you guys, but other things in life are catching up with me. Thanks to all people who cared to review though. And thanks to my anonymous reviews as well.

A fan: I can't reply to your reviews since you don't have an account, but thanks for your encouragement! And I'm so glad you noticed that Tezuka calls Akane by her first name! That was, indeed, foreshadowing _this_ chapter. And I think that it'd be just weird for her to call him "Kunimitsu".

I am currently the OC team fic with the most reviews, I believe. Thanks to all of you. That makes me happy.

Enjoy.

**To Catch A Falling Star****—Chapter 9: Let it Rain**

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The ball bounced against the wall.

_Pok_

'_I'm a failure._'

_Pok_

It wasn't fair.

_Pok_

No, who was she kidding? It was perfectly fair. Flashes of the match shone before her eyes; the ginger hair, the way those cerulean eyes shifted from one side to the other, the way she was led trap into trap until the game ended, quickly as it begun. She bit her lip and swung her racket with even more force.

_Pok_

The score had ended at 6-0.

_Pok_

But the scoreboard didn't tell how she lost without winning a single point.

_Pok_

It didn't tell how she fell to her knees in the middle of the last game.

_Pok_

It didn't tell how she—Sakuno remembered this with humiliation—begged Akane to let her forfeit.

_Pok_

And it didn't tell how Akane refused.

_Pok_

Sakuno swung her racket again and again. The ball hit the wall and bounced back, over and over. '_All I can do is practice._'

_Pok_

'_I want to be stronger._'

_Pok_

'_I want to play better._'

_Pok_

'_I want Ryoma-kun to notice me._'

_Pok_

'_He hadn't even cared enough to watch my match…_'

_Pok_

'_I wasn't good enough._'

It had been raining for a while now. Sakuno had no idea how much time had passed. Puddles were appearing on the ground and her t-shirt was getting soaked. She felt tears stinging her eyes for some strange reason. Gritting her teeth, she kept swinging her racket.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The rain was falling in torrents now. Still, she swung.

Kaidoh passed the little girl as he began jogging home. He paused, jogging in place, staring at the skinny form swing her racket over and over. Her arm was so thin it seemed as if the racket would snap it in half. However her eyes… her eyes carried strength that her body hid. For a brief moment, he saw his first-year self in that girl.

He smiled and continued jogging.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The rain poured. Still, she swung.

Aiko finished putting the beads back in her hair and tied her braids into a ponytail, the last one to leave the girls' locker room. She was still upset that the coach and team captains had not put her on the singles list. To her, doubles was a soft option. What's worse, she was playing with that freshmen girl! '_Not that I'm prejudiced, but she doesn't have what it takes! She's not good enough._' She had seen the girl during their laps, and how she was completely exhausted while Aiko didn't even break a sweat. '_Of course, she didn't train under cruel conditions like I did._'

She walked quickly into the rain, her footsteps sloshing in the deep puddles. The _pat, pat_ of a tennis ball caught her attention. Turning a corner, she saw Sakuno swinging her racket like her life depended on it. For a moment Aiko stared, dumbstruck.

Aiko had been forced to train under harsh conditions by her coach.

Sakuno did it by herself.

'_Maybe I'm the one that's not good enough for her…_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane?" Reina murmured as she watched out of the window. The two data specialists with the team captains were all gathered in the classroom. The rain made soothing pit-pat noises on the window. Occasionally, there was a muffled rumble of thunder.

"Yes?" Akane asked. She, Tezuka, Oishi, Inui, and Coach Ryuzaki had been in a heated discussion about the techniques and levels of the girls. None of them had been able to view all the matches from start to finish, so now they were trying to piece it together. Also, Coach Ryuzaki was only able to see bits and pieces of the matches from Court A and B, and had not seen her granddaughter's match nor Sayaka's. It had been a long day, and Akane was frustrated. "And don't give me any of your vocabulary crap. I'm not in the mood."

"Umm…" Reina concentrated. "The freshman girl is still… acclimatizing to, no, _practicing._" She turned from the window. "Weren't you a little harsh when you played her?"

"In this weather?!" Oishi jumped up immediately. "We should stop her!"

"Don't," Akane said, and he stopped in his tracks. "One of the reasons I chose her for this team was because… that girl has determination. She has the strongest determination I've seen—perhaps even stronger than Suzume." She cast her eyes to the pouring rain outside. "Every time you show her she's not good enough, she'll practice until she gets there. And that's the kind of person we need." Akane looked back at the captain. "It's not just talent that makes a player. It's what they make of it."

"Spoken well, Akane." Coach Ryuzaki smiled with satisfaction and pride. That was _her_ granddaughter out there in the rain, _her_ granddaughter. At that moment, she could not have felt more proud.

"But still…" Oishi protested.

"Hmm…" Reina suddenly sounded amused. "It seems that you don't have to possess disquietud—…ah… _worry_ anymore."

**x********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno felt her arms grow heavy as she flung her racket forward to meet the ball. '_I can't stop! Not now! I want to be better! And if I stop… it'll be a sign of weakness._' The ball had become soaked, bouncing lower and lower as water filled it. Her movements became sluggish as she swung at wet ball, her racket almost scraping the ground. The impact of the ball was like a pocket of cement, and it nearly knocked her over. She stepped forward in order to catch her balance, slipped, and fell forward into a puddle of water.

The cold muddy water splashed onto her face. She felt it soaking through her clothes quickly, like a paper towel seeping up water. She bit her lip, her mouth trembling, not even trying to get up. Now she really felt like crying, and she didn't even know why.

"Ryuzaki." A voice suddenly said. She looked up, only to be hit in the face with a cloth, the metal zipper poking into her skin. '_Wait a minute, cloths don't have zippers..._' She pulled it off her face only to find out it was a Seigaku regular jersey. She looked up at the person who'd thrown it.

His name escaped her lips in a whisper. "Ryoma-kun…"

"You'll catch cold." was all he said before he started walking back into the building.

She shuffled into it and got up from the ground. His scent enveloped her and she felt closer to him in a way she couldn't describe. A smile came over her features. '_He _does_ care…_ _Or am I just reading too deeply into his actions?_'

The look in her eyes suddenly changed. '_Whatever it is, it won't help me win tennis!_' She picked up her racket.

"Ii data…" Inui murmured as he joined Reina next to the window, his pencil scribbling on the notebook marked _Echizen Ryoma._

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Tezuka…" Someone appeared at the door of the classroom. "May I speak to you for a moment?"

Tezuka looked up from where he had been writing. It was Kimura Ren… or Kai? He couldn't tell the difference. Closing the notebook, he got up and joined him outside.

"Thanks. I'm Kai, by the way, in case you couldn't tell." Kai told him. He seemed to have a much more serious air about him then his brother, who had more of a fiery temperament, Tezuka noticed. "I wanted to ask you to look out for someone."

"If it's Oshiro, you don't have to worry." Tezuka said, thinking about how he'd nearly been attacked by the other brother in fear that Chiharu had been hurt.

"It's not," Kai suddenly smiled. '_He thought of her rather quickly…_' "Chiharu is actually a lot stronger than she looks. It's my sister that I'm worried about."

"Kimura Suzume…?"

"Yes. She's the opposite of Chiharu. While she seems strong on the outside… she's not all that strong on the inside. I'm not asking you to become her bodyguard or anything. But just… if you notice anything wrong with her, could you tell me?"

The stoic captain merely blinked. '_Wrong with her?_' There were plenty of things wrong with her, especially her tennis. That girl had a lot of noticeable mistakes and holes in her tennis. And that attitude of hers also needed a bit of adjusting.

"Just keep an eye on her for me," Kai said. "And tell me if she's not being herself."

He nodded his consent.

"Kai-nii?" Suzume suddenly appeared in the hallway. "What are you doing here?" Her gaze travelled from the captain and to her brother, and back again. "You're not trying to get buchou to go easy on me, are you?"

He smiled a tender smile that seemed to be reserved for her. "No, I just thought I'd pick you up. Bad weather, you know."

"You are a horrible liar, nii-san."

"Actually, I'm a very good liar. I'm just a bit out of practice."

"Oh, so you admit you're lying to me?"

"I don't think I ever admitted such a thing. Did I, Tezuka-san?"

Tezuka began to understand what Kai had said about Suzume. In school, on court, she gave off a rebellious and… almost _angry_ manner. Indifferent, as well, and uncaring about life. Yet last night and right now he had seen her acting in almost affectionate ways with her family. "Excuse me." he said, bowing slightly and returning to the classroom. There were other things he had to attend to.

"Ah, Tezuka…" The coach nodded at him to sit down. "As I was saying, I am still concerned about the girl's doubles 2."

"Ryuzaki-sensei, your granddaughter has a knack for doubles," Akane said firmly. "My concern is that Aiko doesn't have the same knack. We were considering putting Momoshiro Sayaka in, but I think that she'd play a much better combination with her brother in the mixed doubles tournament."

"She could play both," Oishi suggested. "Then we'd have a reserve."

"Somehow, I don't think that would go well with Komboi." Akane said. "And it'd be dangerous to count on Momoshiro for two matches, since her style is bound to give her a sprained ankle."

"Sprained ankle?" Coach Ryuzaki repeated, puzzled.

Oishi sighed in exasperation. "You know, Ito-san, in your own way, you can be as bad as Reina." He began to explain Sayaka's style to their coach.

"I thought I told you to call me Akane."

"Eh?" He looked perplexed. "No, you never told me that!"

"Well, I'm telling you now."

A pink tint came onto his cheeks. "O-okay then… Akane-san…" It was on the tip of his tongue to say "then you must call me Shuichiro", but somehow he couldn't ask her to do that. It made them seem too close. It was one thing for a girl to ask that you call her by her first name, but for a guy to ask… it just didn't seem right.

"Besides… you call Reina by _her_ first name, so it shouldn't make a difference…"

"A-ah…" Oishi suddenly felt very confused. Why hadn't the words "then you must call me Shuichiro" jump onto his lips when Reina had asked him to call _her_ by her first name?

"We're doing some more basic training exercises before starting on the combinations and doubles exercises," Inui said. "After all, the tournament is almost three weeks away. We have time."

"There's a lot of places we need to work on. Inui and Watanabe,—

"—Reina—" she cut through, only no one interrupts Tezuka when he's giving a command, so he just went on as if there was no interruption.

"—I expect the team menu to cover all aspects," His gaze sharpened. "And we mustn't forget the boys too."

"It will, don't worry."

"Then this meeting is adjourned."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Others ran forward, shielding themselves from the rain. Izumi walked slowly, feeling the rain, enjoying the touch of rain upon her skin. She loved the rain. For a moment, after checking that no one was looking, she twirled with outstretched arms, mentally playing a melody in her mind. The rain swirled around her like a thousand sparkling lights. Iridescent dew bejeweled her hair as it flowed around her, silken black. She was lost, lost within the rhythm of the rain, lost within its sensual caresses, lost within the roaring thunder and lightning that split open the sky, and lost within the deafening silence that followed.

"_Dance," _The heavens seemed to cry. "_Dance, Izumi,"_

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Of course, after about fifteen minutes she regretted her decision. The rain was coming down harder now, in big droplets that splattered upon your skin in the most unpleasant way. The wind had also picked up, flinging the drops of rain against her in painful, stinging ways. Her whole body was soaked. She ducked under the shelter of a bus station, dripping water. She waited. No bus.

Five minutes passed. No bus.

Ten minutes.

She was shivering now. The temperature had dropped greatly, and since Seishun Gakuen believed in femininity, she was in her uniform that comprised of a short skirt and top. Her arms and legs were freezing. She blew on her hands, rubbing them together.

Suddenly, a purple van pulled up in front of her. The window of the passenger seat rolled down to reveal the face of her stoic captain.

"Morioka," he said curtly. "Get in."

She obeyed him, but as she opened the door, she found herself looking into the smiling face of a certain tensai. She hesitated.

'_Why can't he just leave me alone?_'

"Morioka-chaaaan!!" Kikumaru's voice came from the backseat. The redhead poked his head over the seat. "Hee hee, you're the fourth person to be rescued! Oshiro-chan is in here too!"

Feeling a bit better knowing that Chiharu was there, she got in. Kikumaru and Chiharu were sitting in the seat behind them. She wished that she could trade seats with Kikumaru.

"I thought… your car was red…" she said quietly. If it had been a red sports car, she would not have gotten in at all.

"My car needs some repairs," Yumiko said from the driver's seat, looking at her in the rearview window. "A friend lent me this one just for today. Good thing too, a lot of you got caught in the rain out there. The other car wouldn't have been able to hold this many."

While they were talking, Kikumaru had grabbed a handful of Izumi's hair. He twisted it like he was twisting a towel. Water gushed out and splattered onto the leather seat. "Whoa! Morioka-chan is even more soaked than Oshiro-chan, and _she_ fell into a puddle."

"Two, actually…" Fuji said, the smile being ever present. "How did you become so wet, Izumi-san?"

"Eiji…" She yanked her hair away. Not that twisting it hurt; her hair was so long that she didn't feel a thing. But it wouldn't be nice to get someone else's car all wet. The action allowed her to avoid answering Fuji's question. She rubbed her hand along her arm quickly, trying to warm it up.

Tezuka turned from the front and unzipped his sports bag. He took out a towel and handed it to her.

"Th-thank you…" She felt touched. It was almost as if the stoic captain was expressing… _care._ She spared Chiharu a quick glance of apology, feeling a bit guilty. Taking the towel within her rain-stained hands, she did her best to dry off her hair, since it was dripping onto her shirt and making her clothes wetter than they already were.

"See, Fujiko!" Kikumaru whispered loudly into Fuji's ear. "You should've saved your towel for Morioka-chan instead of offering it to Oshiro-chan! That way Tezuka could've given Oshiro-chan _his_ towel!"

"Gomen. I'll remember next time."

'_Fuji's nice to all the girls…_' Izumi thought, relaxing a bit. '_It's not as if I've been singled out. Then why… why do I feel so… strange?_'

A certain person's head suddenly popped up next to Kikumaru's. "Hmm… Tezuka has shown slight concern to about 12% of all girls that he has encountered."

Kikumaru, Chiharu, and Izumi all jumped about a mile. Fuji looked as though nothing had happened.

"INUI! Were you hiding there the whole time?!"

For a moment, he didn't speak. "Yes, you were quite right. They did not notice my presence at all. I got some good data…"

They all looked confused before Kikumaru snatched something black off of Inui's head. It turned out to be a headset and microphone. He put in on his own head. "Kikumaru speaking! Inui is busy stalking someone, and is unable to answer your call. Who is this?" There was a long pause before Kikumaru took the headset of his head, dazed and looking at the data specialist in wonder. "Whoa! Who are you talking to?! Someone in Germany? Or even aliens? I couldn't understand a thing!"

"That would be Reina-san." He put the headset back on his head calmly.

Suddenly, someone's cell phone went off. (_Imagine the chorus of 'We love Seigaku' playing_) All of them clasped their pockets to check, but only Tezuka pulled his out. He checked the caller ID and frowned, not recognizing it, and answered it. "Hello?" There was a pause. "Kimura…"

"Kimura-san calling?" Fuji chuckled. "And Watanabe-san is plotting with Inui with that microphone. It's almost as if the whole team is in here."

"Yes, Oshiro is with us…" Tezuka's voice continued. "No, we're not in the rain. We'll get her home. Yes, she's safe." He paused, listening for a moment, then handed his cell phone over the seats. "Kimura wants to talk to you."

Izumi passed the cell phone to Chiharu. A smile broke out on her face when she answered it. "Suzume-chan? No, I'm fine. Fuji's sister drove by and picked us all up," Pause. "Inui-san, Kikumaru-san, Fuji-san, Izumi, and Tezuka-buchou," Pause. "Oh, my cell ran out of battery! I'm sorry! I didn't know you were looking for me!" Pause. "Yes, I'll be safe. Tell Kai-san thanks for offering. Don't worry." She passed the phone back to Tezuka, a little bit of a glow on her face.

Tezuka looked at the screen and noticed the call was still ongoing. He lifted it to his ear. "Kimura?" Pause. "Hai." Then he terminated the call.

Fuji noticed Izumi hugging herself to keep warm. He took off his Seigaku regular jersey and tried to drape it over her shoulders before she stopped him.

"Don't. I'm fine."

"But—"

"I'm _fine_."

He nodded and let the jersey settle in his lap, respecting her wishes. Izumi didn't regret refusing it; she needed to keep him away from her, but the jersey look so _warm_…

"Where are we going?" she suddenly asked, realizing that they'd been driving for quite a while and none of them had been dropped off yet.

"Fuji's place," Tezuka answered. "You and Oshiro both need to dry off. You could catch hypothermia if you stay wet for too long."

'_Fuji's place._' Izumi thought. '_Great._'

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The dark clouds masked the sun completely, as if it was night already. She was sniffling a little from the freezing rain. The ball bounced back to her hand, heavy from the amount of water it absorbed. '_Maybe it's time to stop…'_

She would have to run for it. She had no umbrella with her, and her grandma should've returned to the house by now. Her legs ached. Sakuno began walking swiftly home. '_I guess the good thing is that I can't get any more soaked than I already am…_'

A dark shape caught her eyes. Someone was standing… waiting… under the tree in front of her. She blinked the rain from her eyes. Slowly his features came into view. "Ryoma-kun…"

Wordlessly, he handed her his umbrella and walked out in front of her in the rain.

She blushed with happiness.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi felt him drape the jersey over her shoulders again. She tried to shake it off, protesting, "No—"

"You're shivering." he simply said.

She couldn't argue with that, and allowed him to place the jersey on her shoulders.

Inui was scribbling away, and Kikumaru hid his smile behind his palm. However, Chiharu looked at Izumi worriedly. She looked… unhappy. Scared. The blue-haired girl shivered a little at her own thoughts and pulled Kikumaru's jersey tighter over her own body.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A car pulled up next to him and the window was lowered. "Oi… seishounen… what are you doing in the rain?" a man with sunglasses asked.

Ryoma stuck his nose up in the air. "Walking home."

"Where's the umbrella I gave you?"

"I left it somewhere."

"Hmmm…." Suspicious, the man looked into the rearview mirror. He saw Sakuno walking by herself, holding his son's umbrella and wearing his jersey. "Ohoho…. So this is love…" He reached out and grabbed Ryoma's ear.

"Ite!"

"Making a girl walk on her own… what kind of man are you?!" In a flurry of movements, Ryoma somehow found himself sitting in the back of the car. His father hooked the car into reverse and stopped beside Sakuno. "Oi, pretty girl…"

"Eeh?" She went red at this stranger's comment.

"My idiot son insists that I give you a ride back," he grinned. "Isn't that right, Ryoma?"

"I said nothing." Ryoma replied, though not loud enough for Sakuno to hear.

His dad turned around. "Hmm… she seems really soaked. You could invite her over… then suggest she take off her wet clothes… and then…"

"Oyaji!"

"What?" His dad frowned at him. "You should enjoy life more, seishounen. You won't be young forever." His attention turned back to the girl. "He wants to invite you over for dinner too."

"Eeh? Is it okay? The ride, I mean."

Ryoma sighed. His dad was being an idiot again. They were wasting too much time already. He opened the door. "Ryuzaki, get in."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Yumiko parked the car and opened the door, allowing the six of them to climb out and enter the house. She had previously called her mother, alerting her to cook a large dinner. Thankfully, the dining table was big enough for all of them… maybe a little squished.

They took off their shoes one at a time, the hallway not being able to fit all at once. Footsteps neared them and a voice drifted into their ears. "Nee-chan… you're finally home, that took you a really long ti—"

He stared at the crowd of people that had been dumped on his doorstep.

"Yuuta-kun!" Izumi exclaimed.

"Izumi-senpai…" Yuuta said in surprise.

"I haven't seen you since you left…"

"Me neither…" His eyes surveyed the room. "Aniki, it's almost as if you brought all of Seigaku home. Maybe I shouldn't have come home today…"

"Ne, Izumi-san, Chiharu-san…" Yumiko said. "I'll take you up to my room. You can borrow some of my clothes for today." They followed her up the stairs.

"Fuji-san…" Inui walked up to Yumiko. "I need to ask a favor…" He lowered his voice. After a few seconds, he passed her a sheet of paper. She nodded. "Of course! I'm happy to be of help." Taking the two girls into her room, she closed the door securely.

"Fuji…" they heard Inui say. "May I borrow your computer? I need to run a couple of calculations…"

"My clothes are in that drawer…" she said, pointing. "Feel free to borrow anything." After about five minutes, she ended up picking out the clothes for them. Izumi and Chiharu surveyed themselves in the mirror, both looking more feminine than they had looked in a long time. While the school uniform had a short skirt, it often smothered curves that both of them did not lack. "Chiharu-san, come here for a moment!" Yumiko said, seating the girl in front of her dresser mirror. "I'm going to change your hairstyle a bit…"

"No, don't…" Chiharu protested, her hands hovering protectively over her pigtails. '_The last thing my mother told me was that my hair looked cute in pigtails…_'

"It's all right, they'll still be in pigtails if that's what you're worried about," Yumiko smiled and pulled out the piece of paper Inui gave her. It was a drawing of Chiharu, with her hair slightly different, making her seem less child-like. The drawing was so detailed—even every flicker of light was penciled in.

"Reina…" Chiharu breathed.

"Hmm?"

"Reina must've drawn this…" Chiharu swallowed. She remembered how people found her hairstyle similar to that freshmen girl's… Tomo-something… "Okay, you can help me change it." Yumiko's fingers worked expertly, and somehow Izumi found herself remembering the sensation she had felt when Fuji helped her put her hair back into a chignon. "Fuji-san, what do you do for a living?" she asked.

"Please, call me Yumiko," she said with a smile. "I'm a makeup artist."

"Really?" That was interesting news.

"Yes, it's almost a joint project with Syusuke…" She stopped talking as she finished twisting the other hair tie in place. "There we go. See how lovely you look?" Her pigtails were tied lower than before, allowing the pigtails to rest in front of her shoulders. Her naturally curly hair framed her face beautifully. (A/N: Girls, you can pull your hair in front of your shoulders and hold it so your hands are right under your ears… that's what it looks like)

"Thank you…" Chiharu said with a little bow.

"I better go downstairs and help with dinner," Yumiko commented, looking at the time on the clock.

"I'll help!" Chiharu offered, and followed her out. Inui was sitting at the dining table with Tezuka, talking about something while pointing to writing within his notebook, while Kikumaru was playing with Fuji's camera. When they came down the stairs, Tezuka glanced up, then looked down. Suddenly, he looked at Chiharu again, looking at her properly as if seeing her for the first time.

Everyone's eyes went to Tezuka. Everyone except Chiharu, that is. She was looking everywhere but him.

His expression was still unreadable. After a moment, he left the room to look up something on Fuji's computer. Chiharu followed Yumiko into the kitchen.

"7 seconds…" Inui murmured with a smile. "Experiment complete."

"7 seconds?" Kikumaru questioned.

"7 seconds…" he repeated. "The longest time Tezuka has ever looked at a girl…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

For the most part of the ride, the only sound came from the pat pat sound of the rain on the window.

"Ano… it's really nice of you to give me a ride…" Sakuno said timidly, trying to evoke some sort of conversation between them. She fiddled with the strings on her tennis racket.

"It's nothing…" Ryoma said, not taking his eyes off from the window. '_It's all Dad's fault anyways…_'

Nanjiro winced. "Neh, little girl… Why don't you join us for dinner first?"

"No, it's okay… I have a lot of work to do…" Sakuno thought of all the English homework ahead of her. If only today was Friday… Then she could spend the afternoon at Ryoma's house… she'd be lying if she said she didn't want to.

"Really? That's too bad…" He pulled up at the Ryuzaki residence. "Well, here we are."

"Thank you!" Sakuno got off the car, holding her racket tightly in her hand.

"Ryoma…" Nanjiro said. "Walk her to the door."

"What?" Suddenly his dad's bare foot came flying out of nowhere, kicking him onto the pavement. Ryoma had no choice but to get up, open the umbrella, and join Sakuno.

When they got to the doorstep, Sakuno turned to him shyly. "Umm… thanks for walking me home, Ryoma-kun…" She looked down, tracing small circles with her shoe.

"It's nothing…" He bounced a ball on the ground carelessly, not even looking at her.

"Umm… I'll wash your jersey and give it to you tomorrow…"

"Fine."

Bounce.

She made no move to open the door, so for a while they stood there in awkward silence.

A thought suddenly came to him. "Ne… if you want, I could help you with tennis…" Ryoma said, the ball bouncing back into his hand.

"Really?" Sakuno's face lit up.

"We're one team now… so you need to get better…" He bounced the ball again. "There's still a few things wrong with your form."

"Arigato, Ryoma-kun!" Her eyes positively sparkled. He said _few things_, not _everything_. "Then I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Ryoma…" his father said when he climbed back into the car. "I don't know what you said, but you've made her really happy."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"_7 seconds… The longest time Tezuka has ever looked at a girl…"_

"Are you serious?" Kikumaru stared. "Did you plan this all out? The rain, the clothing, the hairstyle change too?"

"No… I only discussed the hairstyle change with Reina-san… The rest were coincidental factors…" He noted some more data into Tezuka's notebook.

"But Chiharu looked awfully cute… I'm not surprised…" Kikumaru got up. "I'm going to take a picture, hee hee!" He entered the kitchen, flour crunching under his shoes. The sweet, nectar-y aroma of blueberry pies was in the air. He located her, dressed in an apron and chopping up the vegetables. "Say cheese, Oshiro-chan!"

Chiharu turned from the tomato she was slicing up and smiled broadly. Kikumaru, she found, was growing on her.

_Click_. "Mou… it's all blurry…" Kikumaru said as he looked at the tiny image on the back of the camera.

"You have to change the setting, Eiji…" Fuji explained patiently.

"Fuji's camera is too clunky and complicated." Kikumaru complained. "But Oshiro-chan! I just noticed! You have dimples!" When the girl was smiling, _really_ smiling, two little subtle dents appeared in her cheeks. The kind that made you want to poke your finger into.

Fuji chuckled. "You should smile like that more often. I'm sure he'd like it."

"Who?" she asked, pretending not to know, but the color of her cheeks betrayed her thoughts.

Yumiko smiled. "I trust Inui's experiment was a success then?"

"Nee-san? You were behind it too?"

"It was a big success! Tezuka looked at her for seven straight seconds!"

Chiharu tried to ignore them, but her face was the same color as the tomato she was cutting up now.

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi opened the door next to Yumiko's room, assuming that this was another bedroom. She felt almost like an intruder; sneaking around another's house without their permission. Not that they said that she _couldn't_ explore… The room smelled faintly like ink and plastic. Her hand went for the light switch.

When the room was illuminated before her, all she could do was stare.

Photos. Hundreds and hundreds of photos were pinned up against the wall, creating a collage of color. Some were giant posters, some were small prints, but all were stunning, beautiful patterns of light and pigment. As she turned, Izumi had the impression that she'd stumbled upon an artist's gallery.

Some of the people she recognized. These were everyday photos. Kikumaru smiled up at her from a picture taken of him sitting on a mountain rock; Tezuka was looking at something in the distance, looking as stoic as ever; Momoshiro and Kaidoh grabbing at each others' shirt scruffs—she smiled at that one, and hundreds more.

The posters attracted her more. They were exquisite, artistic. They captured pure, untamed emotion. They were all portraits. Models posed, smiled, cried… They lighting was perfect, and she suspected that even after taking the picture, more hours were put onto polishing it on the computer. Her favorite was one of a girl kneeling on the floor, her hands pressed up against a mirror. The whole picture was in black and white, except for a drop of blood that appeared to be coming from the girl's lips in the reflection and the rose petals scattered at the girl's knees.

"Izumi-san?"

She whirled around, her hair swirling around her.

_Click._

Fuji suddenly stood frozen, bringing the camera down slowly and staring at the little image on the back, transfixed. Kikumaru peeked over his shoulder. "Whoa…"

"I'm sorry…" Izumi said. "I shouldn't be here… right…? …" Her voice trailed off as Kikumaru and Fuji both looked at her intently. "What's going on…?" '_The picture…?_'

"I think I've found her…" Fuji said, the smile coming back.

"Who?"

"My next model…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"That's stunning…" Yumiko said when Fuji showed her the picture.

"No, the other pictures in the room are stunning…" Izumi said. She turned to Fuji "You took all of those?"

"Yes, thank you… It's a hobby of mine…"

Yumiko smiled at Izumi. "I've been wanting to work on a face like yours. You have a very traditional beauty about your face, you know?" She laughed. "A pity I never got to work on Tezuka's regal features…"

"He wouldn't let the camera near him, much less the makeup brush…" Kikumaru commented cheerfully.

Fuji had to admit that the picture _was_ amazing. He'd never really appreciated Izumi's eyes before. Chiharu had remarkable eyes… golden amber, and Akane's blue-green eyes were also breathtaking… it just wasn't a feature he'd ever noticed about Izumi. Her eyes… dark, mysterious, yet vulnerable at the same time. Already he was picturing all different ways to light them, to tie down the raw emotion within into a single image. "So… will you do it?"

She should've said no. She should've refused his chivalry in the car earlier. She shouldn't even have gotten in the car. The minute she saw him in the car, she should've turned away and left. He was too kind, even if this kindness was directed towards everyone, she couldn't feel worthy enough to accept it. "Okay."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Really? Well, I must congratulate you then, Chiharu." Akane's voice came from within the phone. "You've been given 7 seconds of Tezuka's undivided attention."

Everyone else was in the room, setting the table or doing something else. Fuji and Kikumaru were showing Yumiko something on the camera. Chiharu was glad that the sound coming from Fuji's home phone was small, so nobody could hear what Akane was saying. "Yes… but…"

"Tezuka never looks at a girl for that long, unless he's standing opposite to her across a tennis court. You should feel flattered. Are you still not satisfied?"

She lowered her voice so no one in the room would hear. "He still calls me Oshiro…"

"Fuji, I need to borrow your phone." Tezuka said. Fuji tossed him a portable one. He held it up to his ear and frowned, unable to hear a dial tone. Testing it, he pressed the speaker button.

Akane's voice could not be more clearly heard in the room than if she was standing on the table and announcing the next few words: "I'm telling you Chiharu, if you want Tezuka to call you by your first name, you have to _insist_ on it—"

Chiharu slammed the phone back into the cradle, a hand over her mouth. The look in her amber eyes was pure horror. Tezuka, it appeared, had picked up an extension.

_And_ pressed speaker.

Everyone was looking at her. More importantly, _he_ was looking at her. By now, she should have at least _twenty_ seconds of his undivided attention. She didn't want it. Not like this. Time seemed to freeze still, as all she could do was gape at him and have him look back. She begged for the earth to just open up and swallow her whole. She begged the sky to fall down and smash her into pieces. Nothing happened.

Tezuka took a few steps closer to her. "I'm sorry…" he said quietly. "But I find calling someone by their first name too personal…"

"But…" Her voice was small. She was still conscious of everyone's gaze on her. "You call Akane by her first name…"

He didn't have an answer for that.

She stepped back, realizing, nodding, her eyes filling with tears. Tears of embarrassment, of shame, and of rejection.

His expression was still unreadable.

'_Lightning, please just split me apart._'

Lightning did strike then, and thunder boomed, shaking the house. She would've smiled at how dramatic the situation seemed if it didn't hurt so much. Suddenly, the lights went out.

The room was suddenly filled with voices.

"Oh great, now we can't see a thing."

"Do you think the whole district is out, or just us?"

"I can't see the neighbor's house. They must have lost power too."

"Tezuka…" Fuji said from beside him, a calm voice amidst the chaos. His tone was somewhat more accusing, however. "Why can't you just call her Chiharu?"

He didn't reply.

"It's not as if she asked to call _you_ by your first name…"

Chiharu cried out as thunder roared again. Without light and sight to distract her synesthesic condition, all the sounds were splattering, untethered, unchained, across her eyes in a medley of different colors. The loud ones were red. Too many voices, mixed with the red bolts of thunder that ripped through her vision. It was too much; it frightened her. Her hands were over her ears. She tried to move, but only succeeded in tripping over a chair and stumbling. Blindly, she tried to get away from the noise.

"We need to take care of her…" Inui said, being one of the only people that understood the torture that she might be going through. However, at that moment, Kikumaru snatched his glasses, and Inui was launched into a blind chase, adding to the chaos.

Using the light from his camera, Fuji located Chiharu and gently took her arm. "It'll be okay…"

She was still whimpering, her eyes tightly shut.

"Fuji…" Tezuka pulled Chiharu from Fuji's grasp. "I'll take care of her…"

He nodded, opening a door that led to a guest bedroom. "It'll be quieter in there…" The smile reappeared. "Just don't do anything…"

The warning tone reappeared as well. "Fuji…"

The tensai's smile just grew as he shut the door firmly behind them.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The only reason she didn't feel the awkwardness of the situation was because she was drowning in her fear. Chiharu was still shivering, but she seemed to have calmed down a bit. She only cried out when she heard thunder. With her eyes closed that tightly, she couldn't see the flashes of lightning, and hence she had no warning when the thunder was going to hit.

Tezuka, on the other hand, was completely at loss of how to comfort her. They were both sitting on the edge of the one bed in the room. A flash of lightning told him that her eyes were still shut. Kimura's words to him wormed their way into his brain. _"Take care of Chiharu-senpai for me…" _and he had replied_ "Hai."_ "You can open your eyes now…"

"I'm scared…" she said. Covering her ears with her hands did little to smother the sound.

"Why?"

"Because…" She winced as thunder clashed again. "Because if the room's dark, then lightning seems brighter… and the storm is so near that thunder and lightning are almost occurring at the same time…"

Lightning flashed again, bringing the boom of thunder with it. In the flash, Tezuka saw her expression. She looked like she was in pain. Somehow, he felt a compelling urge to put his arm around her and fought it off.

"I'm scared... if I open my eyes and see the flashes of lightning along with the red of thunder… I'm afraid that I'll fail to distinguish my synesthesic colors from reality…"

His gaze did not change. "Surely you've been through thunderstorms before…"

"Yes, and this is how I've gotten through it every time…"

Fear. Tezuka knew that she would be able to distinguish what was real and what was synesthesia; she had been playing tennis with her eyes wide open while still using her abilities… it was just fear that was preventing her from trying. "You have to overcome this… Oshiro, can open your eyes?"

She shook her head wildly.

He took her hands away from her ears. Her eyes stayed shut. "It'll be okay, just look at me…"

She cried out again as thunder shook the house, trying to pull her hands out of his grip and over her ears. He held on tight, refusing to let go.

"Just look at me…" he repeated.

She shook her head.

"Chiharu, look at me…"

Suddenly, her eyes opened.

He'd said her name.

She waited, not taking her eyes off of where she assumed he was. They both sat there, waiting for the next boom of thunder. As the silence grew longer, she held onto his hands, and him onto hers. Her grip became tighter as the suspense grew.

Then it came, the brilliant violet flash of lightning. Chiharu glimpsed his face, his expression again unreadable, but his eyes were different. He looked more… _caring_, _gentle…_ She'd begun to learn how to read his face. Then the thunder boomed and her vision was ripped, shredded, she couldn't help but flinch… but she kept her eyes open. She realized that she saw the colors in layers, just like how she normally saw things. Almost like layers of oil and water… if she concentrated on one, the other became blurred… it was okay. Her grip on his hands weakened.

"It's okay…" she murmured, more to herself.

He nodded once, but it was enough to reassure her.

The lights flickered back on.

She dropped his hands, suddenly conscious of how tightly she'd been holding on to him. Now that the fear had been eradicated, she was free to embrace the awkward feeling. "Umm… thank you…"

Again, he nodded, getting up. He frowned slightly at the _open_ door for a moment, then left the room, leaving Chiharu alone with her thoughts. He'd said her name. He'd said her name. She replayed the way her name sounded on his lips again and again in her head. '_Chiharu. Chiharu. Chiharu._' He hadn't tried to comfort her. Instead, he'd forced her to confront her fear. And he's sat by her and helped her while she overcame it. He'd held her hand too, '_Both of them!_' Thunder roared again and she flinched, willing herself to conjure an image of him up in her mind. "It'll be okay…" she said again.

"It'll be okay…" and it was.

**x********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

After everyone had calmed down, they finally, _finally_ sat down to dinner. Kikumaru had a few extra bandages on his forehead, and Inui's cheek had swelled a little, but besides that there were minimal injuries.

"Did you have a good time, Tezuka?" Fuji asked, the smile seeming so very irritating to him right now.

He chose to ignore the bait.

When they were feasting on blueberry pie (Yuuta was especially pleased by this), he realized something. The door was _open_. "Fuji… if you don't hand over the pictures you've taken, you'll be running 10 laps tomorrow."

Kikumaru smacked his forehead, wincing, for he forgot that he had injured the part earlier. Fuji just continued smiling. "I can never keep anything from Tezuka…" he said, pulling the camera out. "But I'm curious. You said 'hand over' instead of 'delete'. Don't tell me, you want to keep the pictures for yourself?"

Pause.

"20 laps, Fuji."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Nine

**A/N: **This chapter was written fairly quickly. Why? Because I started this chapter on a rainy day, and there was a rainy day today so I felt the need to finish it. Originally I planned this for RyoSaku, but it evolved into more FujiIzumi and TezukaChiharu.

Not enough RyoSaku for you? Be sure to read the next chapter!

Mini-summary: Ryoma's sick, and who better to bring him his homework than Sakuno? Especially since she feels guilty because she assumes that it was her who made him sick. (The umbrella, the jersey, etc)

I'm still not satisfied with the amount of reviews xDDD. Hint, hint.

**I believe I will not START writing the next chapter until I reach 200+ reviews.** That's only 7 more. So… sneaky people who have me on story alert but have never reviewed, this is your chance!


	10. Of Sickness and Training

**Disclaimer: I don't own POT, just the OCs. The characters and the original plot belong to Konomi-san.**

Hi guys! I'm back with a new chapter! And to my readers, I've already started the next one! I think I'm on a bit of writing fever. Hope you all have a good summer! Of course, I still have to do SAT crap, since I really need to pass 2250. At least Reina's helping me out a bit.

You must know how grateful I am to see all those reviews! It made me so happy! And I'll be writing replies to you guys as soon as I get around to it… (I'll probably reply after you forget you even reviewed.)

And if you ever felt offended by my little notes that threatened you guys into leaving reviews, I apologize! They were meant as half-jokes (Yes, I really want the reviews).

This chapter is slightly shorter, less than 6000 words whereas nearly all my others cracked 7000.

This chapter is dedicated to all those RyoSaku fans out there!

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter 10: Of Sickness and Training**

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Echizen's not coming today?"

Sakuno's eyes immediately found their way to the front of the room, where Momoshiro was talking with the teacher.

"Yeah…" Momoshiro was saying. "I went to pick him up this morning, but his cousin said he was sick. Caught a cold or something, I don't know," He added under his breath, "That's what you get for training in the rain…"

'_Ryoma-kun caught a cold?!_' Sakuno thought, her eyes going wide. '_It's all my fault! I shouldn't have let him lend me the jersey _or_ the umbrella!_' She thought of the jersey that was clean and neatly folded within her sports bag. '_I'm so selfish! I didn't even think to ask him if he was cold!_'

"I guess it can't be helped…" the teacher replied, opening the attendance book and marking him absent. "He's never missed a class before, so it's fine…"

Class began, but Sakuno could only think of how sick Ryomamust be. She worried through Math and Science. She stared out of the window through all her other classes, wondering if he would make it in time for the next class. All of her teachers gave her strange looks; this wasn't like the hardworking Ryuzaki they knew. Even during lunch, Sakuno just took out the bento she made for two and picked at it unenthusiastically.

"Sakuno, Sakuno!" Tomoka bounded over, looking at her lunch. "What do you have?"

Sakuno wordlessly continued moving her food around with her chopsticks.

"Sakuno, are you all right?" Tomoka looked at her friend in concern.

Momoshiro suddenly entered the classroom, his arms laden with food. He overheard Tomoka's question. "It's because Echizenisn't here, right?" he asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. He expected a reflexive denial from Sakuno; however the latter just ignored him and continued to play with her food halfheartedly.

"Oi, I know Echizen's never missed a day before…" Momoshiro said, the smile slipping. "But I'm sure he'll be fine. He might even get up just for tennis practice later." He forced a grin. "You know how that brat is. Tennis is everything to him…"

'_Tennis is everything…_' Sakuno thought sadly. '_And I'm nothing…_'

"Momo-chan-senpai, I think you made her feel even worse." Horio noted.

"Ryuzaki?" he pressed. "It's okay, really. He might even being swinging his racket at this very minute… Besides," He leaned in to whisper with a grin, "Being sick was probably worth walking you home and all that…"

"Eeh?!" She blushed. "How do you know about that?!"

"Ah that…" He grimaced slightly. "You can tell Echizen that there are mosquito nests all over his bushes, by the way."

"Y—you hid in the bushes?!" Sakuno cried.

"What's going on, Sakuno?!" Tomoka asked excitedly.

"It wasn't just me!" Momoshiro said defensively. "It was all Sayaka's idea anyways! And Watanabe-senpai just kind of appeared out of nowhere to get 'data' or whatever…"

"Watanabe-senpai… Sayaka-senpai…" Sakuno's blush crept down her neck until her entire face rivaled that of a traffic light. "H-how many of you were there?!"

"Ah…" Momoshiro fidgeted a bit. "Only me, Sayaka, Oishi-senpai, Mamushi, Watanabe-senpai, and Ito-senpai."

"_ONLY?!_"

"Come to think of it…" Momoshiro pondered for a moment. "I could _swear_I heard Inui-senpai's voice, but he wasn't there. Maybe it was just Watanabe-sensei talking to herself, because it seemed to be _his_ voice coming from _her_ mouth."

"Takeshi-nii…" Sayaka suddenly poked her head in the room. "Did you steal my math homework again?"

"Did you steal my school uniform again?" he retorted. Sheepishly, Sayaka entered the room, clearly dressed in the boy's school uniform, though without the dark jacket. She even had a tie loosely slung around her neck.

"I _need_ my math homework for next class!"

"So you're saying that I can just go to school naked, huh?!"

"You have two school uniforms!"

"No, I have one, since you've already claimed the other as your own!"

The freshmen's eyes wandered back and forth from between the two siblings speedily, almost as if they were watching a table tennis match.

"MOMOSHIRO SAYAKA!" a teacher suddenly roared.

"Hai!"

"If I have to remind you about your attire ONE MORE TIME…"

"But sensei!" Sayaka protested, while her brother snickered at her. "I'm in uniform! Isn't that what's important?"

"Momoshiro Sayaka. You are a girl. As much as you don't wish it, I repeat, _you are a girl._ Therefore you must respect the school rules and wear your proper uniform." The teacher's eyes narrowed. "Now go get an extra uniform from the office and change, or I will give you detention!" She sniffed and walked off.

"This school is anti-feminist…" Sayaka muttered under her breath. Then her eyes caught onto Sakuno. "Ah!" she exclaimed. "You're the girl from yesterday!"

"Y-yesterday?" Sakuno repeated questioningly.

"The one that Echizen kid totally has a crush on!" She grinned. "You landed yourself a good one, girl."

"Wh-what? I—"

"Sakuno, Sakuno! What's going on?!" Tomoka squealed.

"This is madness!" Horio said. "Echizen would never—"

"Isn't he going to help you with tennis sometime? Like personally—"

"That's nothing. Didn't they go on at least two dates already? The racket stringer, remember—"

"I heard he already took her out personally for tennis training. Multiple times, even—"

"I always knew Echizen had a thing for you—"

"Shut UP!" Sakuno suddenly exploded. She had had enough talk about her and Ryoma, especially since half of it wasn't even true. Why was everyone so _obsessed_?

The whole classroom was speechless. Nobody knew how to react. The thing is, Ryuzaki just doesn't _do_ violent outbursts.

'_Of course, that's not entirely true…_' Momoshiro suddenly remembered. '_She had a bit of an outburst after Echizen got hurt in his match with Shinji…_'

Sakuno breathed hard. There. Now as long as she stayed away from Ryoma and stopped giving them something to talk about…

"Ryuzaki?" The teacher approached her, handing her a folder of papers. "Would you bring this to Echizen's house after school today? It's his homework."

She groaned inwardly while everyone else laughed, secretly plotting to follow…

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Oishi sighed. "Ryuzaki, let's try again!" He lobbed the ball upwards. Sakuno jumped and smashed, missing the basket she was supposed to be aiming at. She had been missing since the start of practice.

None of the others had trouble like this. Izumi and Reina had pinpoint accuracy. Aiko nearly blew the basket away. Suzume's irregular shots often bounced _out_of the basket again, which was annoying. All of them and all the rest could easily hit it into the basket. Why was it so hard for Sakuno?

"Okay, water break!" he called. Though the weather was getting colder, the practices still worked them up to a sweat, making them feel like they were in the middle of July. The others piled for their water bottles, stumbling to the fountain for a refill.

"Akane-san!" He located the ginger hair easily. "Can I talk to you?"

"You already are, but shoot." She took a sip from her bottle, looking at him expectantly.

"Ryuzaki can't smash the ball properly…" he finally said. "She can't keep up with the other regulars. She can't move as fast, she doesn't have their precision, and she…" He paused, thinking about how to put his words politely. "Basically, there is a huge gap in their levels."

"True…" Akane nodded and took another sip, pondering. "But is there such a big gap between their potentials?"

He was silent.

"Ryuzaki has talent…" Akane said. "And as I've previously said, she'll _work_for it. She'll practice daily and nightly until she has that smash nailed. So maybe she's not a freshmen wonder like your Echizen is."

"I…" Oishi hesitated. "I just think there might be someone out there who can play better…"

"There's always someone out there who plays better. That's why you guys haven't taken home the national titles for ages…" she replied tactfully. "Sakuno is like your Kaidoh. If she loses, she'll probably double her training or something until she snares a win. Suzume is the same. I think Aiko and Sayaka are probably like that too, judging by their temperaments."

From her tone, Oishi could tell that she believed some people weren't like that, and it disappointed her. "I think Momoshiro-chan is like that; even after the gymnastics team was cut, she didn't give up and managed to incorporate it into tennis…"

Akane nodded. "I don't think you have to worry about Ryuzaki Sakuno. She knows she isn't as good as the other regulars, and she'll do anything she can to close the gap."

"A-ah…" Oishi shifted. "I guess so…"

"She's the opposite of Izumi…" Akane suddenly said. "And I'm worried. Izumi… losing doesn't spur her motivation, in fact, it dampens it. And Chiharu has never lost a match before, so how will she know how to handle it?" She rubbed her forehead. "Sorry. I shouldn't be burdening you with this talk."

"No… it's okay… I've often felt that way before about the guys…" Oishi replied gently. '_She puts on a blunt and practical front, but inside she really cares about the team…_'

"I guess I was the one that should've asked _you_ for a talk. You're very easy to talk to," she said with a smile. She looked at her watch. "We should continue practice."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Practice consisted of basic weight and movement training. The weather was getting cooler as traces of golden autumn were woven into the summer green. Soon, the sky was darkening and it was time for practice to end.

"Sakuno, where are you going?" Akane asked as the brown haired girl picked up her bag.

"I'm going to Ryoma-kun's house." she replied absently.

There was a long silence.

"No, not to—I mean—" she stammered.

A torrent of catcalls was unleashed, along with laughter and the teasing voices of several of rowdier regulars. "Echizen is finally realizing what girls are?" "No, he'll probably screw it all up again…" "Data… but surely you knew of this, Reina?" "Of course she did! She was the creepiest stalker person in the bushes yesterday! So pro!"

"Senpais! You're all so mean! You haven't filled me in yet~" Kimiko whined, pouting.

"I have not promulgated the espionage for fear of your propensity towards disseminating insidious rumors, however I will itemize it for you—"

"_Reina_…" Akane warned.

"I will… (_cough_) summarize… it for you briefly…"

"Yeah, you got a couple hours?" Suzume asked Sakuno sarcastically, rolling her eyes. " 'Briefly', honestly."

"_Suzume_…" Akane could barely cover up a chuckle in her voice.

"Um… then I'm off, senpais," Sakuno said timidly, trying to slip away quickly escape the torture.

"Wait, you can't go yet. Reina has to take your measurements for our uniforms." Akane said. "We're getting them tailored."

"Okay…" She held out her arms as Reina worked with the measuring tape expertly. As soon as the black haired girl was done, Sakuno all but ran from the courts. The others gazed at her retreating figure, amusement donning their faces.

"Do you think we scared her too much?" Chiharu asked anxiously, a wrinkle of worrying already etched in her brow.

"Nah, she's just too anxious to see her Echizen, right?" Sayaka said, elbowing her brother.

"Yeah…" Momoshiro replied vaguely. He was looking elsewhere, a puzzled expression on his face.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Does Oshiro-senpai look _different_ to you, or is it just me?"

"Hmm…" Sayaka studied her for a split second, before smiling. "Love the new hair, Chiharu-senpai." She punched her brother on the shoulder. "How are supposed to win a girl's heart if you don't notice these little changes?"

"I _noticed_, okay?!"

"Tezuka…" Oishi said. He indicated the running tensai. "Why is Fuji running so many laps today?"

Chiharu ducked down to hide her blush. She feared that Tezuka might glance her way. He didn't. She felt relieved, but disappointed as well.

"Inappropriate behavior and lack of respect shown to other members." Tezuka said after a brief hesitation.

"Aka taking secret pictures of Tezuka and Oshiro-chan together." Kikumaru whispered to Momoshiro.

Tezuka looked in his direction, and he quickly ducked behind his kohai.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno stood outside the door, completely at a loss. She'd been standing there for at least a full minute.

The door had no doorbell.

It was one of those Japanese style doors, where one slid the door open as opposed to opening it with a doorknob. The windows were frosted, so she could not simply wave and attract the attention of someone inside to open the door. '_Should I knock? Or should I just call out?_'

She sighed, wondering if she'd ever get inside when someone appeared. "Hi. Are you looking for someone?"

Sakuno turned to see a young woman, probably in her twenties. "Ano… um… I'm Ryoma-kun's classmate…"

"Nice to meet you!" She smiled. "You must be Ryuzaki-chan, right?"

"Eh?" Her eyes widened. "How did you know?"

"Oh, I just guessed," she replied with a wink. "I'm his cousin Nanako. I heard all about your little date yesterday…"

"It-it wasn't a date!" she said reflexively. Then what Nanako said registered in her brain. "Then… did, um Ryoma-kun tell you?" Somehow he didn't seem the type that would tell these events to others.

"Of course not. As if that kid tells any of us these things. I heard it from Oji-san." She grinned. "Well, why aren't you going in? Did the old pervert scare you away?"

"Ano… um…"

Nanako reached for the inside of the door frame and pressed the doorbell. Sakuno kicked herself mentally. '_Stupid… I should've checked there!_ _And I spent a whole minute looking for it like an idiot! I wonder how long she was watching me for…_' Her thoughts were interrupted when the door slid open with an impatient thud.

Nanjiroh appeared in front of the door. "Did you forget your key again, Nanako?! You know I don't appreciate being disturbed when I'm reading…"

"You call those pervy magazines reading?" Nanako walked by him with her nose in the air. "Maybe I should just tell Auntie where you stash all of them…"

He twitched with panic. "You wouldn't dare…"

She shrugged.

"Ohoho…" Nanjiroh's attention was diverted as he peered at the newcomer. "Ryuzaki-chan, is it? Are you here to see Ryoma?"

"Actually…" Sakuno's heart sped up a little, and her courage faltered. She hastily reached into her bag, pulling out a few sheets of paper. "Um… maybe I should just leave this with you… It's his homework…"

"Nonsense, nonsense!" Nanjiroh exclaimed as he began shoving her upstairs. "He'll be happy to see you! Now you just go up there and say hello! And do stay for dinner!"

"Ano… I…" Sakuno said helplessly as his relentless pushing eventually brought her to Ryoma's bedroom door. Nanjiroh gave her a mischievous grin before rapping loudly on the door and then scurrying downstairs, so all she could do was gulp and wait for Ryoma to answer.

The door opened. "Oyaji, I told you, I'm not hungr—" He stopped short when he saw the girl in front of him.

"Ryuzaki…"

"Ano… Ryoma-kun…" Her eyes danced from her left shoe to her right one.

"Why are you here?" It wasn't an accusing tone, merely one of an inquiry.

"Oh! I'm sorry…" She reached into her bag. "Here's your homework. Sensei asked me to bring it to you."

"Domo…" He took it from her hands. There was an awkward pause. Ryoma suddenly felt a bit self conscious being in his blue pajamas and having messed up hair.

"Um… so how are you feeling?" she asked, trying the break the silence.

"It's nothing. I'll be back in school tomorrow."

"Ah… um… that's… good…" she managed to reply lamely.

There was another awkward pause.

"Mrow row?" Sakuno felt a soft brushing about her ankle. She looked down to see a fluffy cat rubbing itself against her. "Eh? Ryoma-kun has a cat?"

"Karupin?" Ryoma said, mostly to the cat.

"It's so cute!" Sakuno bent down to pet it. Karupin purred at her touch.

"Hmm? He likes you…" Ryoma murmured.

"Really?" Sakuno beamed. Suddenly Karupin bounded back inside the room. He reappeared almost immediately, tail in the air, carrying what appeared to be a stick in his mouth.

"He wants you to play with him…" Ryoma remarked. '_Karupin doesn't like just anyone…_' "Come in." He held the door open.

"Eh? Is it okay?"

He almost rolled his eyes. When would she stop with the stupid questions? "Come in."

Timidly, she stepped inside. He sat down on the carpeted floor, moving his MP3 player out of the way and taking the stick from Karupin. There was a bit of fluff attached to the end. Ryoma began moving it up and down, making Karupin stand on his hind legs, reaching for the fluff.

Sakuno giggled, delighted. "He's dancing!"

"Here." He gave her the cat's toy, and she began playing with him. As she moved the stick back and forth, laughing at Karupin's attempts at nabbing it, he couldn't help but notice a happy glow about her. '_She's so easy to please…_'

"Neh, I'm going to change." he said, grabbing some clothes from the closet and heading to the bathroom.

"Eh? I'll go outsid—" But he'd already left the room before she could finish her offer.

Sakuno sighed and picked up Karupin. "Mou… sometimes I have no idea what goes on in your owner's head… I don't even know why I like him…"

The cat tilted his head to the side, almost as if he was contemplating what she had said.

"He's an amazing tennis player, but sometimes I'm afraid that's all he is…"

"Mrow row?"

"What, you're saying he's more than that?"

Karupin blinked his blue eyes. "Meow…" He began licking her hand.

She sighed again and put him back on the ground. "If he is, then he doesn't show it…"

"Ryuzaki?" Ryoma was at the door, dressed in his usual tennis attire.

"Ryoma-kun!" She stood up, slightly flustered. "Did you hear what I was saying to Karupin?" She prayed the answer was no.

"Hmm?" He suddenly smiled. "Ryuzaki likes to talk to cats…"

She blushed. '_Ryoma-kun's teasing me!_' "Th-that's not true!"

"Hmm. Hey, come with me for a moment," he said, changing the topic. "Bring your racket."

"T-tennis?" Hesitatingly, she reached for the racket on the floor.

"I said I'd help you, didn't I?"

"H-hai!"

Just as she was leaving the room, she glanced backwards. Karupin was curled up on Ryoma's bed, watching them with almost a… _smug_ expression on his face. As if he was saying '_I told you so_.' And Sakuno could _swear_, at that moment, she saw the cat wink at her.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"You're playing tennis now, right, Izumi?" The doctor asked her while consulting her file.

"Yes…"

"Is it bad for her, doctor?" her mother asked anxiously.

'_She's going to use this as an excuse to get me to quit…_'

"Well, I discourage sports in general…" the doctor said. "And tennis is a particularly strenuous sport. You might do better to find a more sedentary hobby."

"See, I told you!" her mother said as they walked out of the hospital together. "I'd rather you go back to dancing than continue tennis!" Several people turned to stare at her—her mother was one of the very few people in Japan that still wore kimono. Her family was all about traditional values, unlike Fuji's, she noted, which seemed much more modern.

"I haven't quit dance, Mother…" Her smile was cryptic.

"I was under the impression you had…"

"No, Mother."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Aiko stopped the treadmill. Three miles was enough for today. She picked her tennis bag up from the floor, flashing her gym membership card at the counter. The lady behind the counter nodded and noted her down, before allowing her to depart.

Instead of taking the bus, Aiko decided to walk home. It would only take about thirty minutes. '_And besides, it's about time I see what my new home is like…_' The roads weren't very busy in this area. It was quiet. She could hear the birds chirping in the trees. '_It's no New York City, but it's… nice… in its own way…_' She walked until she came to a river that was at the side of the road. For a moment she stood there and watched the tiny waves dance within the water. The orange sunlight spilled onto the water a million shards of glass.

'_Can't believe there are sights like this in the city…_' Aiko thought.

The swishing sound of someone swinging a racket and grunting drifted into her ears. She walked a little farther, curious, until saw someone under the bridge. '_Ah! It's that kid with the bandanna!_'

He looked up, having heard her footsteps. "Aiko-senpai…"

"Umm… I forgot your name…" Her accent was obvious, but not extremely heavy.

"Kaidoh Kaoru…"

"You… practice a lot…" she managed to say. '_I'm not even sure if I'm using the right tenses…_' "Do you play… 'power tennis'?"

"No, that's Kawamura-senpai and that baka Momoshiro…"

"Baka…" she murmured to herself, mentally searching for the definition. "Ah! Idiot!" she exclaimed out loud triumphantly.

He let out a small burst of laughter.

"Actually, that was a joke…" she said. "My mom uses it on my at least ten times a day. It's almost a nickname." Halfway through that sentence she switched to English again.

He nodded to show he understood.

"Well, I'll see you at practice tomorrow then…" She waved before heading off. Inside, there was a small bubble of happiness. She'd managed to have an almost normal (albeit slightly forced) conversation in Japanese! And he'd called her '_senpai_'! It made her feel… what's the word? Respected.

'_A black girl that can barely speak a single word in Japanese somehow gets the respect of her peers (or at least one of them),_' she thought. '_I guess I'm moving forward._'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryuzaki is tense again…" Ryoma commented as he held a ball in his hand.

"Ah… is that so…" Sakuno tried to calm herself down, but her nerves were all over the place. '_What if I make a fool of myself in front of him again?_' "R-Ryoma-kun, aren't you still sick? Maybe you should help me some other time…?" she suggested, trying to escape.

He ignored the suggestion. "Neh, what kind of practice did you guys do today?"

"Umm… Some dash practices and smash practice…"

"Did Oishi-senpai make you guys use the baskets?"

She nodded. "But… I couldn't get a single one in…" she confessed, looking downcast.

"Hmm…" He observed her for a moment. "Ryuzaki, I'm going to lob the ball upwards. Try smashing it."

"Eh?! But—"

"Here goes!" Up went the ball in a high arc.

Sakuno focused her eyes, jumping for it.

'_Her timing isn't bad…_'

She smashed it onto the left side of him. Her form was fine, but he saw what was costing her her aim.

"Hmm, so that's how it is…" he said with a nod. "You're using all your strength to smash the ball. By doing that, you're sacrificing your ball control."

"But…" She stared at her racket and took a few experimental swings. "If I don't use all my strength, then it won't be a smash…"

He tilted his head. "Then you have to work on your arm strength, right?" Walking back to the baseline, he turned and pulled another ball out of his pocket. "This time, try smashing the ball into the left doubles court."

"Eh?!" '_That thin little band?_' "I can't…"

"Just try it," He said, and lobbed the ball. "Here."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Chiharu typed a message on her cell phone. Her fingers hovered over the sent button. Before she could change her mind, she pressed it, hearing the satisfying click that the button made.

_I'm sorry about yesterday._

It was a half-lie—she didn't regret what happened, but if it made him feel uncomfortable, then she definitely did. After all, she suspected that Fuji was still teasing him about the occasion every moment possible. About a minute later, her cell phone vibrated with the news of a new message. Heart beating, she hesitated over opening the message. What would he write back? When she finally worked up the bravery to read it, the message sent a spread of warmth throughout her limbs. It was only two words.

_I'm not._

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

She was getting tired, Ryoma sensed it. They'd been practicing for a little over an hour.

There was evident improvement. In fact, he was shocked at how fast she'd improved. Her control wasn't nearly 100% yet, but it was at least 85%. '_Oh crap. I'm thinking like Inui-senpai now._' In the last 10 balls, she had hit 9 of them into the strip on the court that marked the end of the doubles court. Even if she couldn't get it into the basket, he suspected that she'd probably be able to _hit_ the basket.

Of course, power was still an issue. "Neh, Ryuzaki, last one!" he said, holding up a ball. "This time just try smashing it. Put all your power into it."

"Okay!" She got into receiving mode. '_Yoshi…_'

He lobbed the ball upwards.

She jumped for it, timing it perfectly. '_Put all your power into it…_' The ball eclipsed the sun, creating a bright aura around it, almost as if she was reaching for a star. '_I want to become stronger!_' Then she brought her arm down with all the force she could and pinned the ball downwards. She had no idea where she was aiming it, just knowing that she'd used up all the strength she had.

'_You know, this day wasn't half bad…_' Ryoma thought as he watched her. Her hair flew out behind her. He didn't mind her hair much anymore either, which was very weird. '_She really tries, and she's gotten a lot better…_'

"Ah! Ryoma-kun, watch OUT!"

BAM!

'_Not good enough, it seems…_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ryoma sat on the ground, rubbing his cheek. "Ite…"

"Gomen, Ryoma-kun!" she cried, running over, evidently horrorstruck. She knelt down next to him. "Are you all right?"

"I guess you're okay on your power too…"

A scared giggle escaped her as she poured some water from her water bottle on to her handkerchief. "Here, let me…" Leaning over, she put the cloth onto his cheek.

Ryoma suddenly froze.

She caringly patted the cloth on his cheek. The sunlight cast a golden tint onto her auburn curls. "Mou, I hope it won't bruise…"

His face felt hot. God forbid… he couldn't be… _blushing_?

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"He's blushing, he's blushing!"

"I know, Eiji-senpai, now be quiet! They'll find out!"

"Or they'll think that the bushes have snakes in them. (_snicker)_."

"Urusei, you moron!"

"Oh yeah, since when did _you_start calling Eiji-senpai by his first name, Sayaka?"

"Good data…"

"ACK!"

"I-NU-I! Don't scare us like that!"

"Hmm…" Nanjiroh said as he watched from behind the bell. "There's a good atmosphere there…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Later that evening, Ryoma lay onto his bed, feeling strange about the day's events. He'd never felt this way before. It was something to do with her. It had to be. Sighing, he picked up Karupin. "What was Ryuzaki saying to you earlier?"

"Mrow…"

"You're not going to tell me?" He glanced away. "Fine. Not that I care."

"Meow row." Now the tone was accusing. It was as if he'd just said "_liar_".

The cat crawled over and licked at his cheek, exactly where he'd been struck with the ball. And somehow Ryoma felt that Karupin did it on purpose.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Ten

A/N: That's it! Okay, done!

The doorbell part was because I couldn't find the *** doorbell on my friend's house about a day ago. I just stuck that in there for anyone who also had the same feeling.

Random Trivia: Apparently Nanjiroh had a date with a girl named Kimiko when he was at Seigaku. How coincidental. I actually wasn't even sure if Kimiko was a Japanese name—I just wanted to incorporate the name "Kimi" in.

I'm really stuck for what the subcategory of this story is. There's Humor, Friendship, Action, and Drama. I wish I could put all of them. Tell me what you think!

And I've already started the next chapter, so no worries! But reviews would make me write faster, you know…

Review!

Next chapter: While basic training continues, the tournament nears and doubles training has to begin. And we may also meet some of those irritating fangirls that are just too jealous of an all-girl team that can get so close with the regulars. Chapter 11: **Doubles or Nothing**.


	11. Doubles or Nothing

**Disclaimer: Only own the OCs in this fic, not Prince of Tennis. That belongs to Konomi-san, whom I worship.**

Ladada~~ I'm back with a new chapter! I know, so quickly, right?

Thanks to ALL my reviewers. Thanks to my loyal readers and my new readers. You guys are the reason I write this fic.

Btw: In case there is a bit of confusion out there, I'm not following the usual tennis season, or strictly, the PoT timeline. Fandom realism can only go so far…

YAY doubles practice. Enjoy.

**To Catch A falling Star-Chapter Eleven: Doubles or Nothing**

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Tiny time-skip: A week later…_

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I. Am. Not. Wearing. That." Sayaka emphasized as she backed away from Reina. The latter was proudly holding up their new uniform on its hanger—it had just come from the tailors. And to Sayaka's horror, it was a skirt.

A _skirt._

A white, pleated _skirt._

The top was a fitted t-shirt almost exactly the same as that of the boys, and they also had jerseys that completed the outfit. But seriously… a _skirt_? She normally refused to even wear the normal girls' uniform for school. Which was why she was always raiding her brother's closet. '_They can't make me wear that!_'

"In case you haven't noticed…" Sayaka forced her tone to be level. "I play _acrobatic_ tennis. I will not enjoy flipping around the court displaying to the crowd my preference of underwear."

"Issue solved." Reina said, lifting up the skirt to reveal that there was a pair of short-shorts attached inside.

"THEN WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING THE SKIRT IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

"Maybe so we can woo the crowd with our feminine charm?" Kimiko suggested, coming from behind the lockers. She had already changed. She twirled around in the outfit before doing a curtsy, giggling. "I think it's cute."

"For once, we are in agreement." Suzume said to Sayaka, looking at the outfit as if it was a pair of dirty socks. "I'm not wearing that either."

"_Thank_ you." Sayaka said gratefully.

"Akane?" Reina called, a sadistic smile on her face. "We're having an altercation—"

"Reina, what did I say about vocab?" she reminded from behind the locker.

"—excuse me, a _disagreement_ about the new uniforms."

"Really." Akane had also donned the new uniform and appeared before them. Her ginger hair was tied up and her bangs constrained by her usual pink headband. (A/N: Like Sakuno)

Reina shook the uniform on its hanger at the two second years. "They repudiate to—"

"_Reina…_"

"Ahem… They…won't… wear it…"

"I see…" Akane pondered for a moment, before the gaze in her eyes turned stern. "Sayaka, since you were part of the gymnastics club and forced to wear skintight _leotards_ that more or less resembled _swimsuits_ and showed about three times the skin and curves that these will, I really don't think that you should be complaining."

Sayaka stood speechless, completely unable to find a reasonable retort.

'_Akane-buchou… is scary…_'

"And Suzume…" Akane turned to the other second year, who bristled in anticipation. "You _designed _it."

"My design was different!" she insisted.

"Yes, and breaking dress code. We used the basis from your design. Besides," Akane's eyes narrowed. "Given what you wear when you're outside of school, these outfits should hardly damage your reputation."

Sayaka secretly wondered what Suzume wore out of school.

The red-haired girl rolled her eye. "Can I at least alter it a little?"

"You can rip the sides and slash the shoulders," Akane told her. Suzume opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Akane said "No, you can't dye it black. Suzume, be reasonable."

"Che." Suzume snatched the outfit from Reina's hands and went to change. Sayaka followed suit. They both reappeared looking disgruntled, but at least they were dressed.

"What does she wear out of school anyway?" Sayaka asked after Suzume had left the room.

"I actually like Suzume-chan's clothing style…" Kimiko admitted. "It's… unique. Artsy."

"_Eccentric_." Reina said with a nod.

"Punk," Akane clarified, not being one to waste words.

"Oh…" Sayaka said.

"Or Goth. Depending on her mood." Akane shrugged. "It's broad. She goes from looking like a punk rock band singer to a gothic hooker.

"Wow…" was all Sayaka could think of. '_I can't believe she designed it…_'

"I think it's a way she releases her anger. She vents a lot of anger into her appearance." Akane continued. "The piercings…"

"Smoking too, right?" Kimiko said sadly.

"I don't see… what there is to be angry about…" Sayaka said tentatively, hoping to elicit an explanation.

"Then you don't know Suzume."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

When the girls entered the court, there where whistles and catcalls, not only from the male regulars but from all the onlookers that happened to be male. In fact, several of them seemed to be sporting nosebleeds. The female onlookers just glared at them with jealousy, wishing that they were the ones in the skirts and being able to stand so closely with the regulars.

"You look good in a skirt, sis…" Momoshiro teased.

"Shut up!" She blushed and smacked him.

Aiko also felt a bit dissatisfied with the uniforms. It was white. Wouldn't that make her skin seem even darker?

"Senpai!" Kimiko twirled around. "Doesn't the new uniform make us look good?"

"En!" Kikumaru nodded enthusiastically. "You all look really cute, nya!"

"Great," Suzume muttered. "Now I'm _cute_."

"I always thought you were cute, Suzume-chan…" Chiharu said delicately.

"Is Tezuka looking at her for more than 7 seconds yet?" Kikumaru asked openly, though not within earshot of his captain. This caused Chiharu to blush deeply and a buzz around the girl onlookers.

"It's nice…" Inui said to Akane. "But knowing you, you would've have permitted a skirt unless there were precautions?"

"There's a pair of shorts that are attached inside," she told him. "With wild players like Sayaka and Suzume, we've got to take plenty of precaution."

From her tone, he could tell that she wasn't just talking about the skirts.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Oishi stared, stunned. When he finally found his voice, he said. "S-sugoi, Ryuzaki!"

She had finally made a smash into the basket. After days of just scraping the edges of the basket, she finally, _finally_ managed to get it _in_.

It wasn't just that. Her power, her movements' fluidity… all had increased by a great amount. Even if she was still quite below the levels of the other female regulars, she was gradually closing the gap. Oishi suddenly felt extremely guilty for suspecting her of being unable to keep up. He turned to Akane with an apologetic glance.

Akane just winked at him with a look that said _I told you so._

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Kikumaru. Oishi." Tezuka said. "Join Momoshiro and Momoshiro for doubles practice in court A. Akane and Marui will work with Ryuzaki and Komboi."

"I presume we'll join Inui and Kaidoh then, Tezuka?" Fuji asked, motioning towards himself and Reina.

"Yes. The rest of you have today's practice session as independent practice. However, don't slack off. There are only two more weeks before the District Tournaments begin."

"Why is Fuji-senpai with Watanabe-senpai anyways?" Horio asked. "Strange doubles pair…"

"You didn't notice?" Momoshiro hit him on the head as he walked by. "Watanabe-senpai is left handed…"

"In fact, she's the only girl player we have that's a leftie," Ryuzaki-sensei said. "And lefties and right handed people always make good doubles pairings. Fuji is also relatively compatible when it comes to choosing partners."

"Yep, you don't have a clue either." Akane said.

She sweatdropped. "You don't have to be so direct."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Originally we were going to use the rope method for doubles training…" Inui said. "But Momoshiro Sayaka's style might make it a bit… dangerous…"

She laughed sheepishly.

"We'll start by playing it like table tennis doubles. You and your partner must alternate in who hits the ball. That way, you can practice on reading your partner's movements." Inui said.

"Easy, easy." Kikumaru said with a confident smile at his partner.

"How am I supposed to read her movements, Inui-senpai?" Momoshiro pointed at Sayaka. "They're too complicated, I can barely _see_ them."

"Well, then, you'll have to learn, Momoshiro." Inui left them to practice with Kaidoh.

"Well, then, I'll start the rally off." Oishi said, hitting the ball with a simple underhand serve.

Sayaka flipped forward and hit it back, cutting across her brother's line of sight. He instinctively went the other way.

"Here!" Kikumaru did a small diving volley and hit it towards the empty court on Sayaka's left… except it was no longer empty? Momoshiro jumped with one foot and hit it back in a powerful backhand, aimed right at the baseline. "Ah! Jack Knife!"

"Oishi! It's the Jack Knife!" Kikumaru called in warning.

"I got it!" Oishi scraped his racket on the ground before lobbing the ball upwards.

"Oi, Sayaka, it's the—" Momoshiro called.

It landed on the baseline of the opposing court with a thud.

"—Moon volley…" he finished, a second too late. "Damn."

"It's even more impressive in real play…" Sayaka said, staring at where the ball landed. "Nice one, Oishi-senpai…"

Oishi blushed slightly. Then he gazed over at the two twins. '_But that pair… they almost pulled off an Australian Formation maneuver without even realizing it._'

"Sayaka, concentrate!" Momoshiro said.

"Hai, hai." She got back into position. "But you know, I've never played doubles before…"

"Oh yeah… hmm…" Momoshiro beckoned a finger towards her and whispered in her ear. "…"

"Okay!" she said, brightening up. "Let's try it!"

Oishi served again. Momoshiro hit it back, and the second rally began. Kikumaru volleyed it. Sayaka threw her racket up in the air in a forward movement, leapt and caught it at the net before hitting a cross-shot that Kikumaru was unable to interpret. Oishi, however, saw it clearly. '_Sayaka's at the net…_' he lobbed it upwards, over her head. '_Shoot!_' He realized his mistake too late. '_It doesn't matter that she's at the net! We're doing alternating shots!_'

"Thanks for the chance, Oishi-senpai!" Momoshiro said as he jumped upwards. "DUNK SMASH!"

'_They… made me forget the rules…'_ Oishi thought, incredulous. '_And even if there weren't any rules, it was a good combination…_'

Sayaka high-fived her brother. "Nice play, Takeshi-nii."

"Same for you."

Sumire glanced their way. "Mm… it's a good pairing. We don't have to worry about them."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Later…_

"Aiko, that's not how you do it…" Akane said during a water break. She sighed. The makeshift doubles team, Sakuno and Aiko, wasn't doing very well. "You have to _trust_ your partner. It won't work if you don't."

'_Easier said than done…_' Aiko thought, biting her lip. '_I'm so used to singles that I run after the ball even though she can get it for me…_'

"Doubles players, gather round!" Coach Ryuzaki called and they ran over to meet up.

"We're going to change the rules a bit now," Inui said. "Think of it as more "area training". Now we're going to practice covering the court area. Right now, we'll draw a line continuing from the center line," Inui drew on the board as he spoke, dividing the tennis court into four boxes. "One partner may only enter these two." He indicated with a pointer two boxes that were diagonal to each other. "The other may only enter these." He pointed to the other two. "Alleys are included."

"Diagonal movement, huh?" Momoshiro murmured. '_Sayaka won't have any trouble with that… floor routines always go from corner to corner diagonally._'

"There will be one point games between the doubles pairing. Those who break the rules or lose a point…" He grinned sadistically, pulling out a plastic cup filled with green liquid. "…will drink Inui's Vegetable Juice."

Everyone (with the exception of Fuji) gulped.

All those singles players were oh so very happy that they didn't have to participate.

"Now then, the first pairing—"

"Wait Inui," Coach Ryuzaki suddenly interrupted. "I think it would be best if all the regulars participated, not just the ones that are going to play doubles for _this_ tournament. Everyone has good individual skills. But playing doubles is an entirely different thing from singles, and everyone should practice it."

'_Damn. No escape now._' ran through the minds of all the singles players.

"Good idea… and that way everyone could experience the wonders of Inui Juice…" His grin spread. "Then how shall we decide the pairings?"

"I can't be with Morioka (Tezuka)." Izumi and Tezuka said at the same time. They glanced at the other in surprise.

"Hee hee, you guys are so in sync though…" Kikumaru teased.

"Why?" Horio asked as he brought two baskets of balls over.

"Morioka and Tezuka are similar," Inui explained. "They both use "zones" and these zones cannot exist on the same court. Imagine them both trying to control the spin and power of the ball. It would be like playing tug of war with your own partner."

"How about…" Reina thought for a minute. "Kawamura and Izumi, Suzume and Chiharu, and Tezuka and Echizen? One mixed and two normal?"

"You can't put Tezuka and Ryoma together," Inui said intentionally. "How about Tezuka and Oshiro?" They all glanced it their direction, evil smiles in place.

Chiharu shook her head vehemently, hoping that no one noticed the change in color of her cheeks. "I-it's okay, I want to play with Suzume-chan…"

"Next time," Inui said firmly. "Tezuka will be playing with you…"

"I've got a better idea," Akane said with exasperation. "How about we _rotate_ partners? Everyone happy?"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So first off its Inui-Kaidoh and Komboi-Ryuzaki eh?" Katsuo said. "I'm so excited to watch Ryuzaki play!"

Tomoka ran over. "Is it starting already?" she asked, panting hard. "I had to do classroom cleaning duties… Ah!" Her eyes feasted on the new outfits. "Uwaaah! I want to wear one of those!"

Kaidoh served the ball, and Aiko returned it into one of Inui's squares. Inui proceeded to hit a straight shot. Sakuno retreated to the box in the back that she was assigned to guard to hit the ball, but Aiko intercepted the shot in _her_ box before it even bounced, volleying it. Sakuno immediately ran for her box in the front and returned the ball. However, it soon became clear that Aiko intercepted most of the balls that Sakuno could've easily picked up.

"Aiko! This is _doubles_! You can't keep taking all the shots!" Coach Ryuzaki said.

The ball was hit towards the center. Both Aiko and Sakuno ran for it. After about two steps, Sakuno retreated and proceeded to cover the empty court.

"That girl is surprisingly good at doubles!" Oishi exclaimed.

"Told you." Akane said, her tone smug.

"She reads her partner's movements well, and she always seeks to cover! She's like…" He thought hard. "Like…"

"Like you, Oishi-senpai…" Ryoma supplied, a smile on his face.

"Echizen…"

"Yup, but she's the only thing that's holding this pair together…" Akane said. She rubbed her forehead. "That Aiko really doesn't have a clue…"

However, the minute Kaidoh unleashed his boomerang, the point was won. He didn't put 100% of his power into it, but being a guy against a pair of girls, it was enough to blow away both their rackets. Tezuka seemed satisfied that they forced him into using the boomerang though.

Inui easily handed over two cups of green liquid. The color was practically opaque.

"A-ano…" Sakuno hesitated. She didn't dare turn it down, but she wasn't quite brave enough to drink it just yet. Briefly, she thought of the laps a week ago where she willingly volunteered to drink it in place of Ryoma. Where was the vigor and courage now? '_I'll just drink it in one gulp! It'll be over in a second!_' She closed her eyes and dumped the liquid down her throat. Aiko did the same. At first, both of them seemed okay.

Then the taste sunk in.

They both convulsed.

And ran like hell for the water fountain.

"Well, they're in sync _now…_" Akane muttered.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Meanwhile…_

"Watanabe…" Tezuka said. "Do you remember the thing I spoke to you about a few days ago?"

"The anomalous..." Akane stepped on her foot. "Sorry, _unique_ technique Kimiko created?" Reina asked. "I did come up with a few theories with Inui-san…" She pulled out a large notebook from her bag. "I think the most logical would be a counter spin slice that utilizes the centrifugal force…" She opened the notebook, and Tezuka's eyes widened.

It wasn't a notebook. It was a sketchbook. A sketchbook filled with beautifully penciled (slightly smudged in some places) drawings. He clearly saw her drawing of Kimiko performing the shot that caused the ball to vertically roll itself up the net. She hadn't been there to see the actual technique, however she seemed to have guessed the correct position and form. He saw detailed drawings of the method of swinging the racket, all from different angles, every movement and step was carefully drawn. There were a few notes jotted in the edges, and labels. She had also drawn the action of the ball rolling itself up the net. Next to it was scribbled "Topspin?" Then next to the racket, she'd written: "Forehand slice?"

"May I look at this?" She nodded and he took the sketchbook from her. He flipped through the pages, seeing almost every regular's moves paint themselves before his eyes. He then flipped to his own page.

"Ah… I'm not finished with that one yet…" Reina said, but he didn't hear her.

Looking at the drawings that depicted his Tezuka Zone, he could almost feel himself performing the steps and swinging the racket. Next to the pictures that were drawn of his Zero Shiki drop shot, she had written: "Lowers the racket by 1.25 centimeters due to large amount of spin".

"You really have a talent," he said, handing the sketchbook back. "As an artist, you catch details that others overlook."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The training continued.

Ryoma and Suzume lost to the Momoshiro twins EXTREMELY quickly. In fact, the point was won on the second rally. Ryoma, being the one to run recklessly after the ball, had collided sharply with Suzume. Of course, Suzume was not low-ranking herself in the reckless department. They saw stars, but failed to see the tennis ball land itself nicely between their forms on the ground.

"Che, doubles," they both said.

Inui handed them the dreaded drink. Ryoma grimaced in horror when taking it, but Suzume acted as if it was no big deal. After drinking it, she nonchalantly handed the cup back while Ryoma high-tailed it for the fountains. For a moment, they thought Suzume could handle it.

Sadly, it was merely a delayed reaction. Suzume soon joined the pile at the fountains.

The Morioka-Kawamura pair played very well against the Watanabe-Fuji pair. Izumi was able to completely seal Fuji's Tsubame Gaeshi with a tactic they'd seen too often—she neutralized the spin of the ball with her elaborate movements. However, Reina's pinpoint precision was also quite fearsome, and her shots had speed, therefore Kawamura's Hadokyuu was also sealed. In his frustration, Kawamura smashed the ball out of bounds, and both he and Izumi joined the rest at the water fountains.

"Next, Oishi-Kikumaru, please enter the courts," Inui said. "And Ito-Marui, you'll play against them."

"Against the Golden Pair, huh, Akane-buchou?" Kimiko giggled. "It's such an honor!"

"And honor to beat them, too…" Akane said.

"Mou, Ito, don't be so mean…" Kikumaru whined.

Oishi served to Akane's court. She returned it, a cross shot to Oishi's box at the rear. However, Kikumaru intercepted it and hit a straight shot, to which Kimiko returned with a cord ball.

"I'm not going to be fooled by that!" Kikumaru said as he caught it with a diving volley.

Akane jumped the minute his racket touched the ball and smashed it into Kikumaru's rear box. Kikumaru, being at the net, didn't have time to react, and it was out of Oishi's boundaries. Kikumaru was already whining, "But I don't wanna drink that thing!" Yet when Akane landed, Inui's glasses flashed menacingly towards her.

"Ito, you landed on Marui's court."

Akane looked down in shock. Half of her foot was in Kimiko's box. "Shoot."

They stood, frozen with dread as he handed them two glasses of Inui Juice. '_Finally… I get to taste the thing that had Reina ranting for a week…_' Akane leaned her head back and gulped it down.

And ran.

"Even the former buchou couldn't take it… Is there a single girl that can stand Inui-senpai's juice?" Momoshiro asked. Sayaka just pointed with her thumb. "Huh?"

Kimiko had taken a small gulp that only drained half the cup and had a thoughtful expression on her face. "It's not bad…"

"EHH?"

"You don't think… there's anything _strange_ about it?" Kikumaru asked meaningfully.

"Strange?" She drank a bit more, tasting the concoction carefully. "Hmm, now that you mention it…" She smiled angelically. "Yeah, it could definitely use a bit more sugar!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Oshiro and Tezuka will play against me and Reina while the rest… (_cough_) …recover," Inui said as they stepped onto the court.

"Chiharu," Tezuka said as they got into position. "Close your eyes."

She felt a brief pleasure at hearing her name on his lips again before what he said registered in her brain. "Eh? Starting off seriously, are we…" Closing her eyes meant relying on impulse only, and it was the ace in her play style.

"We'll have to if we want to avoid that drink…" Tezuka said.

She laughed. Tezuka looked at her; not many people laughed openly at something he said. "Is something wrong?"

"I-it's nothing… It's just… It's obvious Tezuka-san really doesn't like that drink…"

For a minute, the others thought they saw the ghost of a smile on his face, but it was gone before they could tell.

The game began, and it was won rather quickly. Both Inui and Reina made a miscalculation on Chiharu's shot—they anticipated a feint when it turned out to be an actual smash. Tezuka didn't even use any of his signature moves. At least, it seemed he hadn't.

"I'm sorry, Reina," Inui said as he handed her a cup of the green juice. "Cheers."

"Chiharu's data is literally impossible to get…" Reina drank hers in one gulp and began walking towards the fountains before the taste could have effect. When in finally did have effect, she broke out into a run.

"Yes…" Inui said as he watched her run. "But I'm surprised that Tezuka _relied_ on her this time…"

"Water break!"

"It seems most of them are already on water break, anyways…" Coach Ryuzaki murmured.

"Akane," Chiharu said as she watched her teammate stagger back. "Is it that bad?"

"That and worse..." Akane said.

"Morioka…" Tezuka said. Izumi looked up in surprise. "I need to speak with you."

"It seems your counter is pretty easy to seal off…" Reina said to Fuji. "Then again, the Hadokyuu is too. As long as you hit balls that are fast, Kawamura can't make it in time for a big swing…"

"True…" He smiled. '_But Izumi-san is amazing to be able to spot the weakness in my counter so quickly…_' He scanned the court for her and saw her talking to Tezuka.

Tezuka said something, and her arms tightened around her racket. Her fingers were clenched. She took a frightened step backwards.

Fuji opened his eyes in concern.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I saw you coming out of the Tsuchira Hospital a few days ago…" Tezuka told her.

Her eyes widened.

"Morioka… for safety reasons, I need to know why you were in the hospital…"

She looked down at the racket in her hands. It was shaking. No, her hands were shaking. '_I should've known this would happen…_' Even if she tried to cover all her tracks, someone was bound to find out. Akane was brought to that hospital on the night her allergies flared up. Chiharu and Reina had their synesthesia conditions confirmed and tested there. Even Tezuka went to that particular hospital for his arm. "I…" She couldn't speak. She took a frightened step backwards.

"Morioka!"

Her head shot up when he raised his voice. "I…" She swallowed, not sure of how to tell him. What would he think of her? Weak? Deluded? Her parents thought she was seriously crazy (mentally) after they'd found out. "I had a seizure recently…"

There was a moment of silence as he digested this piece of information. "Has the cause been determined yet?"

'_He's taking this rather calmly…_' "I tend to run high fevers easily. And apparently my blood doesn't allocate iron well enough. Headaches and fainting are common symptoms. The doctor said seizures are not entirely uncommon for me either…"

"I see…" He nodded.

"You're going to remove me from the team, right?" she asked, her eyes downcast. "You wouldn't want someone like me hurting Seigaku's chances…"

"I'm not going to remove you from the team, Morioka," he said. "I'm _worried_ about you."

She stared at him in unmasked shock. He'd never said anything like that to her before. '_This might be the true face of Seigaku's captain…_'

"It's serious if it led to a seizure…" he went on. "Did it have anything to do with the amount of training?"

"No, I don't think so…" she replied. "The doctor did discourage sports in general…"

"It should be fine," he said. "As long as you tell one of us if you feel unwell during training sessions."

"Hai…"

As she returned to training, Fuji walked up to Tezuka. "What was that about?"

Tezuka gave him a glance. "Nothing…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryuzaki, Echizen!" Tezuka commanded. "You will play against Kikumaru and Oishi next!"

"EH?" Sakuno cried. '_Doubles… with Ryoma-kun?_'

"Oi… is Tezuka insane?"

"Putting Echizen against the Golden Pair?"

"And with Ryuzaki too…"

"Maybe it's revenge for putting him with Oshiro-chan?"

"Or Echizen isn't actually that bad at doubles?"

"You're wrong…" Akane said, tossing her towel back onto the chair. "Echizen is a horrible doubles player. Awful, atrocious, and terrible."

Ryoma fumed silently.

"It's a test of how Sakuno will react to the situation. I want to see exactly how far her instinct for doubles will take her."

Oishi served the ball. It landed in Ryoma's box. He ran forward and returned it to Oishi's rear box. Kikumaru took it before it could bounce, and hit it back. Ryoma returned it with a backhand slice.

"Ryoma-kun's taking all the shots, huh," Kachiro noted. "It's as if it was singles…"

Suddenly, there was a shot that was heading towards Ryoma's rear box, but Sakuno intercepted it and volleyed it back. She immediately ran back to her square at the back. Ryoma easily followed up on the next shot.

"Nice one." Akane murmured. "She changed the pace a bit…"

"Neh, Ryuzaki…" Ryoma called as he returned another shot. He began running. "I'm going to the net."

"Then I'll join you!" Sakuno replied. She too, approached the net. Their movement made an X as they both ran diagonally for their boxes in the front. Sakuno timed this carefully as to avoid any collisions; she ran a few paces slower, allowing Ryoma to go first.

"Double approach?" Kikumaru cried. He made a signal behind his back. Oishi moved diagonally to his square in the front. '_Oishi's Moon Volley should take care of that!'_

Sakuno hit a drop shot.

"It's yours, Oishi!" Kikumaru called cheerfully.

"I got it!" He scraped his racket along the ground and lobbed it. Yet at that moment, a shadow blocked out the sun.

"Echizen?"

"Hyaah!" He smashed it just as the Moon Volley was in an ascending arc.

"I see!" Inui said. "Because Oishi's closer to the front, the Moon Volley would still be ascending by the time it reached Echizen, so he could jump and be able to reach it. If Oishi had hit the Moon Volley when he was at the rear, as usual, it would be too high by the time it reached Echizen. Ryuzaki hit a drop shot in order to draw it out!"

"It was also one of the reasons she put the "double approach" into play. She wanted to force Oishi into using the Moon Volley." Akane said with a smile. "She's something."

"Maaaan, we got outsmarted by a pair of our kohais…" Kikumaru said. Then suddenly he froze, horrified, as he felt the presence of supreme evil right behind him. (AKA Inui, holding two glasses of his famous juice.)

"AUGGH!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"That's all for practice today!" Tezuka said.

"We'd like to praise Ryuzaki for showing outstanding improvement and incredible skill for doubles," Oishi said. Everyone applauded. Sakuno blushed with pleasure and Coach Ryuzaki positively glowed with pride. "Momoshiro-Momoshiro pair displayed good combinations today as well. Also, the makeshift pair Morioka-Kawamura did surprisingly well—we might consider this pair for future doubles…"

Kawamura smiled at Izumi. "I'm counting on you then."

"You too."

"Then you are dismissed!"

"Let's go to a burger joint then, Echizen!" Momoshiro said as they headed back for the changing rooms.

"Sure."

_In the girls' changing room_…

"Sayaka, you did really well today!" Kimiko enthused. "You basically mastered doubles on your first try!"

"Not really…" she replied modestly. "I just listened to what my idiot brother told me to do."

"Yes really!" Kimiko said. "You guys pulled it off really well! One of the reasons Akane-buchou and Reina and Inui and Tezuka-buchou…" She paused for breath. "…chose you was because you guys were twins! Obviously you guys would have closer bonds and stuff!"

The door opened.

"Ah, Suzume-chan!" Kimiko said. "Where were you?"

"Taking care of some of those idiot perverts that kept hanging around the fence…"

"EEK!" Kimiko suddenly shrieked. "Is that…_ blood_ on your hands, Suzume-chan?"

Suzume looked down carelessly. "One of them had a particularly strong nosebleed, that's all. This is gross." She washed her hands quickly.

"None of you missed those death glares the fangirls were giving us, right?" Akane asked. "Don't be surprised to find our desks overturned tomorrow." She put her hand to her head. "Actually, Chiharu, you're in the most danger…"

"Eh? Why?" she asked innocently.

"Maybe because 70% of the female body _worships_ Tezuka?" Kimiko blurted. "Isn't that a clue?"

"76.4%, actually." Reina cut in.

"But we're not… He and I…" Her face turned red. "I mean…"

"He calls you by your first name now," Akane said. "Think of what that looks like to other people."

"He calls _you_ by _your_ first name…" Chiharu countered.

"_Everyone_ calls me by my first name, thank you," Akane replied. "And if they don't, they should."

"Izumi's also in a condition of imperilment…" Reina murmured.

"Why is that?" she asked, trying to sound indifferent, even though she knew perfectly well why.

"Well, Fuji doesn't really call _anyone_ else by their first name…" Akane pointed out. "Care to explain?"

"No."

Kimiko grinned wickedly from beneath her jacket. "So it _is_ that type of relationship…"

"No!"

"You're pretty close with Kikumaru too, being in the same class and all…" Akane said. "Still, you won't have half as many girls after you as Chiharu will…"

"Speak for yourself, Akane…" Reina said. "You engaged several times in the act of flirting with Oishi…" She consulted her tiny notepad. "Oishi has a lot of fans too."

"So?" Akane pulled her shirt over her head and changed back into her regular school uniform as if the matter was simple.

Kimiko stared. "Do you… _like_ him?"

"He's nice, reliable and a good vice-captain," Akane shrugged, taking her pink headband out of her hair. "What's not to like?"

"No, do you like _like_ him?" Sayaka asked.

"Yeah, sure." Akane looked at their shocked expressions. "What?"

"You're so… direct about it…" Sayaka said.

"That's just her," Kimiko made a pouting face. "Good luck then."

"In fact, all the regulars have large amounts of fangirls… except Inui and Kaidoh, apparently."

"Then Reina, you have a chance."

Reina's black eyes shifted to Akane's in a glare. "I have no idea what you mean."

"No?" Akane pretended to be busy adjusting her ribbon at her chest. "How about—"

"Akane."

The sharpness of her voice could've been used to cut a slice of meat. Akane decided to heed her warning and be quiet.

"Wait-wait, rewind for a sec," Sayaka said incredulously. "Did you just say my _brother_ has FANGIRLS?"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_In the boys' changing room_…

"Since the girl regulars have joined us, our onlookers have increased by 37%," Inui was saying. "98% of which are male. Tezuka, shouldn't we do anything?"

"We can't do anything." Tezuka said shortly while picking up his bag.

"And today, the new outfits came out…" Inui muttered. "Possibility of perversion… 100%."

Tezuka felt a slight shiver run down his spine. The thought of a crowd staring at the girls with lust, wondering just what was under those skirts…"We can't do anything." he repeated firmly and slammed the door shut.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Oi, isn't that Ryuzaki?" Momoshiro asked.

Ryoma turned his head. Sure enough, Sakuno was talking to one of those second year guys. Ryoma had seen him around before, but couldn't name him. Maybe he was one of the few that were watching. Why was Sakuno talking to him, anyways? It's not as if she knew him. Or did she? Ryoma made a mental note to ask her of all the male figures in her life. After a moment, he caught himself. Why did he care who was in her life? '_What's wrong with me?_'

"You guys made a good doubles pair…" Momoshiro said, grinning. "Actually, you guys make a good pair, period."

Ryoma wasn't listening; he was too busy watching them talk. Sakuno didn't seem to be enjoying it. Suddenly the guy made a grab towards Sakuno. Even before he heard her shriek, Ryoma's racket was out of his bag and he was reaching for a ball in his pocket. Just as he was about to serve, someone beat him to it.

Suzume has suddenly come out of the equipment room. Quick as a flash, she grabbed the guy by the neck, lifted him despite his size, and slugged him in the stomach. "SHE ALREADY SAID SHE'S NOT INTERESTED, F*CKING BASTARD!"

'_Of course, a bit more pain would do him good.'_

Ryoma served anyway, and the ball knocked him out.

"A-arigato, senpai…" Sakuno was extremely grateful, but not quite sure how to express it. Truth be told, Suzume frightened her a little… The way she punched him definitely had a sort of practiced air to it, as if she'd done the same thing many times.

Suzume glanced off in the distance. "Well, if I hadn't been here, _he_ would've saved you anyway."

Sakuno looked to see who she was talking about. She turned bright red. "R-ryoma-kun!"

Suzume gave her a rare smile. "You remind me of Chiharu-senpai… a lot…" she murmured, so quiet that Sakuno wasn't really sure if she heard her right, before she left.

"Nice one, Kimura." Momoshiro said as she passed him.

"I notice you didn't do anything." she said over her shoulder.

Man, that girl could make his blood boil.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane-san!" Oishi called as he rushed to catch up with her. "I just wanted to apologize about what I said about Ryuzaki a few days ago… You're right, she _is_ really hardworking. And the skill she showed in doubles today…"

"I think it's more of an instinct, rather than skill…" Akane said. "Her instincts tell her to cover the empty court… And since her personality isn't really headstrong, she is more observant of her partner and often lets them go on offense while she takes care of defense…"

"That's true…" He looked at her. "You know your team really well."

"It's _your _team too…" she reminded him teasingly.

'_Something doesn't seem right, though. How _did_ she get so good at doubles all of a sudden? Instinct and personality can only go so far…_' Akane thought. She decided to investigate later.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hoi~" Marui Bunta answered the phone in a manner that reminded her of Kikumaru.

"Hey Bunta!"

"Oh, Kimi-chan! What's up?"

She was lying on her stomach on the bed, kicking her legs up and down. "We practiced doubles today…"

"That's right, I remember you told me that you specialized in doubles! Like me. So who's your partner?"

"Ito Akane! I told you before, remember?"

"Ito Akane…" he thought for a while. "That blue eyed girl with the light brown-ish orange-ish hair?"

"That's the one…"

"Really?"

"Yup," Suddenly she sat up. "You sound surprised."

"I am…"

"Why?"

"I watched some of her match with that girl with the braids before I went to see yours, and then Jackal went to watch. It didn't last long; Jackal told me she completely crushed the other girl in about 15 minutes."

"So?"

"It's just her style doesn't seem… compatible with yours…" Bunta said. "If you guys played doubles, it seems like there would be a lot of gaping holes in your formation…"

"You're wrong." Kimiko said automatically. There was a beeping noise. She realized she was pressing the phone into her face too hard.

"It's just from my observations, Kimi-chan. Don't be so defensive. She's a great player, but I don't think her style can truly complement yours. Don't you guys have a black girl on your team? You could play doubles with her. It'd look exactly like a female version of me and Jackal!" He laughed.

"I don't want to become your carbon copy!" she burst out. "All my techniques, all my moves… they're _yours_, aren't they? And now you want me to partner with someone else so I'll look like you and Jackal?"

There was a pause at the other end. "I was kidding, Kimi-chan… Well, no, I wasn't really. Look, you have the same style as me. You need a strong defense player to complement you. Net players always do. Look at your Golden Pair for instance. Did you try pairing up with anyone else today?"

"No, we were going to but there wasn't time."

"You see…"

"But Akane and I are undefeated…" she whispered stubbornly. However she knew that he'd cracked her defenses.

"You're undefeated because you haven't gone up against anyone strong yet." he pointed out gently. "Kimi-chan, I just want to help you. And I certainly don't want you to be my carbon copy. Well, not my _complete_ carbon copy, at least. By the way, didn't you create a new move in your match against that long black-haired girl?"

"Yeah, I did by accident…" Kimiko thought of the hit that caused the ball to crawl up the net.

"Now that's something I didn't teach you. It's completely original. It's all you. Any ideas how you did that one?"

She glanced at the pile of papers on her bed and flipped through them casually. She saw herself performing that move over and over within detailed drawings. Reina had handed them to her at the end of practice. "I've got a few…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Inui-san?" Izumi entered the classroom. "Why are you here?" It was already about half an hour since practice ended—she'd just come back to pick up some notes she gave to the teacher to correct.

"I came to get my physics quiz..." Inui said. "I'm not going to allow Tezuka to beat me in my best subject next time…"

"Congratulations, I heard you got a 99% on the quiz…" she said. "The highest score in the grade…"

"99% is not 100%," he replied. "And you received top marks for your history essay, didn't you? Good job on that."

"Fuji-san beat me." she said. She didn't mean for her voice to sound bitter, but somehow it did.

"I what?" The smiling tensai suddenly entered the room.

"Oh, speak of the devil…" Inui said. He picked up a sheet of paper from his desk. "Ja, I'll see you two tomorrow then."

Why is it that she always had to find herself alone with the tensai? Izumi cursed her fortune. "I'm sorry about being unable to come over last weekend…" It wasn't that she was unable to model, but she didn't ask him how long he needed her for and it could've clashed with her hospital appointment. The _last_ thing she needed was for Fuji to find that she was prone to seizures.

"Don't worry about it…" he said. "You can do it this weekend, right?"

"I guess…" she replied reluctantly.

He opened his eyes. "You… don't want to?" he ventured.

She practiced the words in her mind. '_I don't want to. I don't want to._' But she couldn't lie under those eyes. "It's not that… It's just… I haven't done something like this before…" she said uncomfortably. "Maybe you should find someone else."

"No, I want you. Don't worry, I'll tell you what to do and where to stand…"

"Okay…" There was a beat of silence broken by the rustling of papers that Fuji put into his bag. Papers that Izumi knew had a higher mark than hers. He zipped it shut.

"By the way, what were you and Tezuka talking about at practice?"

She froze again. '_Did I look so uncomfortable that he could tell?_' "Nothing important…"

His smile was back in place. "Okay then…" However the thought that Tezuka knew something about her that he didn't just _bothered_ him, somehow… "Actually, it might be better if you come over tomorrow…"

Izumi thought about it. Tomorrow was Friday. That left the weekend free for her paranoid mother to schedule some last-minute doctor appointments and whatnot. "That works for me…"

Neither of them noticed the shadows of others listening from outside the classroom.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Fans' whispers…_

"This is unacceptable!" One of the fans proclaimed. "I will not permit the advances of Oshiro Chiharu on our beloved Tezuka! She must be punished!"

"But…" one of them said timidly. "I like Oshiro… she's nice…"

"What gives her the right to allow Tezuka to call her by her first name?" Another one agreed with the first.

"Oshiro's kind to everyone… She's really sweet." The crowd murmured in general agreement.

"But it's open news that she has a crush on Tezuka! The whole world knows! It's not fair!"

"I heard they stayed in the same room during that rainstorm…" someone else said.

"EH? Where did you hear that from?"

"St. Rudolph's Mizuki…"

"And how would he know?"

"Well apparently it was at Fuji's house, and Fuji's little brother goes there…"

"Speaking of Fuji, did you notice how he calls Morioka by her _first_ name?"

"Did you notice how _both_ he _and_ Kikumaru followed her out after she was upset over her total exam score? Even after she yelled at him…"

"What makes her so great anyways? She's _creepy_…"

"Hey, get this…"

"What?"

"Fuji just invited her over for the weekend…"

"What!"

"WAAAH! Kimura just punched my boyfriend! He got sent to the infirmary! That b*tch!"

"Idiot, he was trying to cheat on you. You should thank Kimura for that fist."

"_Thank_ her? If there's one person that creepier than Morioka, it's Kimura… On top of that, at least Morioka doesn't dress like a total _slut_ outside of school."

"At least Kimura doesn't _act_ like a slut. What did Fuji invite Morioka over for, anyways?"

"Beats me…"

"Akane is _so_ moving in on Oishi…"

"If we're talking about who's acting like a slut, why don't you guys look at Marui Kimiko for once?"

"Kimiko flirts with everyone and doesn't even seem to realize she's doing it. That's just how she is."

"No, I think it's definitely intentional. Did you see the way she was twirling around in the skirt today?"

"Who designed those skirts anyways? They're so ugly!"

But secretly, all of them would give _anything_ to be wearing one of those skirts.

"What did you want to talk to me about, Reina?" Inui asked as he met her on the benches in the park.

Reina was sketching as she spoke. "Did you notice it? Tezuka…"

He smirked. "So you noticed it too…"

Her left hand moved quickly across the sheet of paper. Gradually, Tezuka's arms and legs took form. His figure came to life, swinging a racket of sketched lines across the white paper. She transposed his movement onto the whiteness with her pencil. For a moment Inui marveled at her hand dancing upon the white sheet. She traced beautiful circles that became the movement of the ball; she delved down with her pencil into the ridges of his muscles. "I always thought he was a dunce at doubles… But if he played with Chiharu, they might actually do _very_ well…" She paused thoughtfully. "No, relying on Chiharu was essential because it was against_ us _data users_,_ and Chiharu's style is one we cannot predict. That move may work with anyone."

"I don't even think Oshiro noticed…" Inui smiled as he pulled out his notebook. "That he centered the Tezuka Zone on to her body…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Eleven

The next chapter is going to be a break from tennis. Since Izumi seems to be the most popular OC at the moment, I'll be going into more depth with her and Fuji (and of course, the photo shoot).

It's also about time to start some more work with Kimiko, so I may bring her into the next chapter as well. To me, she's not really Kikumaru's clone. I think she tries _too_ hard to be cute that it may start to get under people's nerves…

In fact, she's already under my nerves sometimes, but I totally love her.

Review. Review.


	12. Moments to Preserve

**Disclaimer: Don't own Prince of Tennis. It PWNS. (I own the OCs within this fic)**

I'm back with a new chapter! I know, so fast right?

THE REASON I UPDATED SO FAST AGAIN IS BECAUSE NOW 100 PEOPLE HAVE ME ON STORY ALERT. That made me happy. And type with super-speed.

Anyways, this chapter definitely contains some (a lot, actually, a LOT) of FujixIzumi goodness, due to popularity judging from reviews. No TezukaxChiharu, sorry. Oh, and please keep in mind that they're still undecided couples so if you have any suggestions, go ahead and tell me!

Oh, and to clear up some things from the last chapter: The Golden Pair is not completely getting owned. It was a one point match; that means _anyone_ has a chance. But of course, Sakuno mysteriously getting better at doubles is going to be a mini-plot.

Thanks to all my loyal readers and supporters. 

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Twelve: Moments to Preserve**

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"That's all for practice today!" Coach Ryuzaki announced. "Remember to come by tomorrow; we're doing full day practices over the weekend!"

"Hai!"

The regulars gathered their things. As it was Friday, most of them decided to remain in tennis attire and didn't bother to change. Of course, there was always the chance of being mobbed by obsessive fangirls, but then again their uniforms needed to be washed and changing was too troublesome.

For most other clubs and societies, Friday was a day off. It was a day to go home early or to schedule something fun to do after school. However, being the famous tennis team of Seigaku, they had to live up to their reputation. Also, the district tournaments were coming up and every millisecond that could be used for training… was used for training. Therefore, many fangirls who were free from other school activities used Friday afternoon to ogle their favorite tennis regulars, which explained the size of the crowds outside the fences that afternoon.

"KYAAAH! TEZUKA-SAN! Look over here!"

He ignored them and proceeded to place his rackets in his bag. Kikumaru slung his arm around him loosely. "Aren't you popular…"

"KIKUMARU-SENPAI!"

"Hoi hoi!" He waved at them, drawing several more squeals.

"We might have to make a run for it today…" Oishi muttered.

Now that there was a girl team, there were also several boys standing outside the fence. While they weren't so obsessive as the squealing piles of fangirls, the suggestive way they were looking at the girl regulars (or more specifically, looking at their skirts) was far more intimidating.

"Do you need me to clear a path?" Suzume asked, cracking her knuckles. "I could do with the extra practice."

"Suzume… don't," Akane told her. Suzume had received a light punishment and a warning yesterday for "teaching those idiot perverts a lesson," as she put it. The school board was threatening to take away her tennis privileges.

Reina was talking to Sayaka. The latter was nodding intelligently to her words. "…therefore your style must be extemporaneous… you understand?"

Sayaka grinned cheerfully. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Reina just sighed.

"I'm sorry! Could you just repeat what you said in standard, understandable Japanese?"

"Your play style is always in a repeating pattern," Inui translated. "You always pull into a twist after a double or triple salto, and your round-offs go into to aerials. Afterwards you often go into a couple of somersaults if the ball is within smashing distance." He touched the bridge of his glasses briefly. "Basically, you're performing your gymnastics routine on the courts."

"I don't see why that's… bad?" Sayaka said.

"It's bad if the opponent _knows_ your routine. It's repetitive. Schools are bound to sent spies and scouts before a match. How are you supposed to play if the opponent knows your every move?"

Reina nodded in agreement. "If Suzume paid more attention to your movements than the ball, then you might not have been able to go into a tiebreaker. _We—_" She indicated herself and Inui, "noticed at the end of the 5th game."

"What do you want me to do?" She was at a loss.

"The strong part of your style is that your opponent can't tell if you're hitting a backhand, forehand, drop shot, or whatever. They can't even tell what direction you're hitting it in. Your elaborate movements hide that. Talk to Kikumaru or Morioka and people with similar styles and ask them how they overcame it. Your movements have to be… random. Spontaneous. That way you can prevent your opponents from memorizing your routine and returning all your shots."

"All right, thank you…"

"One of us should play her…" Reina muttered after she had gone. "She should go up against a data tennis player, just for practice…"

"I'll arrange something like that in the menu for tomorrow." Inui promised.

"Thanks for practicing with me, Izumi-senpai!" Kimiko said cheerfully. Izumi had begun helping her recreate that shot with the ball crawling up the net. Today she'd managed to make it crawl upwards about a fraction of an inch. "This forehand slice thingy is pretty hard…"

"Are you ready to go?" Fuji asked Izumi as she finished zipping up her bag.

"I have to pick up some papers from the classroom," she replied, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "Sorry."

"No problem, I wanted I word with sensei myself. I'll meet you in the classroom then."

"Akane-buchou…" Kimiko said.

"Hmm?" The ginger haired girl retied her hair as she turned around. She took in Kimiko's expression. "You're serious for once. What's wrong?"

"Do you… think that we make a good doubles pair?" she asked undecidedly.

"I think so…" The second year's eyes were looking downwards, clouded. Akane felt worried. "Why?"

"I was talking with Bunta yesterday… and he said some things about our styles being incompatible…" Her head shot up. "Not that I believed him! But you know… I… I mean, some of the things he said ringed pretty true…"

Akane cocked her head to one side. Where was this coming from?

"Buchou isn't a defensive player either… I don't know, it's just a thought…?"

Akane smiled and put her hand on Kimiko's shoulder. "It'll be all right. We'll make adjustments if needed. There's plenty of time to experiment…"

Even as she said the words, her smile was slightly strained. Kimiko noted a shadow in her cerulean eyes that wasn't there before.

"Are you worried about the District Tournaments?" Reina asked Inui.

"Seigaku's boys' team should have no problem reaching the finals. The girls too, judging by their skill and the scouting reports on other schools. The problem is…" Inui tapped his glasses. "The finals themselves."

"The finals themselves?"

He nodded and said a single word. "Fudomine."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Sayaka, was it?" Aiko asked after approaching the second year.

"Yup, that's me!" she replied. "What's up?"

"Well, I couldn't help but notice how good you are at doubles… even though it's your first time trying it out. How do you do it?" Aiko questioned. She didn't want to ask for help; she had her pride, but if she kept playing like she was with that freshman girl, they would lose. And that was a bigger blow to her pride then asking for help. Komboi Ayikuo cannot lose.

There was a gentle smile on her lips. "What can I say? I trust my brother completely. I just listen to what he tells me to do."

"But… that freshman girl never tells me what to do…"

She shrugged. "Maybe it's harder in your case, you being a third year and Sakuno-chan's only a freshman. She can't really tell you what to do, being the kohai by two years and all. And she's kind of shy, so taking the initiative would be a bit harder. You could try… _asking_ her, you know?"

"I guess I can try that…" Aiko said, doubtful.

"You know, you might not even find your doubles partner in her. It takes time," She grinned. "One of the reasons I got to play with my brother is simply because we're _twins._ We bond easily."

"OI! SAYAKA!" Momoshiro yelled. "ARE YOU COMING FOR HAMBURGERS OR WHAT?"

"I'll see you tomorrow, then!" Sayaka waved at Aiko before running off to join her brother.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi finished gathering all her papers and text books when she realized they wouldn't fit into her bag with her rackets. She was just shifting them into her arms when the three girls approached her.

Their eyes narrowed as they put their hands on their hips. "Morioka, what is your relationship with Fuji? Are you going out?"

'_Fangirls. Akane warned me yesterday._' "We're friends…"

"Oh please, as if Fuji would go out with _her_." One of the girls said with scornful tone. "She's always swishing her hair around. It makes me _sick_."

"Then why did he invite you over to his house? What are you planning to do there?" Another girl interrogated.

Izumi, shocked that they knew of the event, didn't say anything for a moment. Apparently, the girls interpreted it wrong and snorted loudly. "Oh, _please_…"

"That is none of your business." She finally recovered her voice. She turned to them, books in her arms. "Now could you move? You're blocking my way."

One of the girls made a sudden motion towards her, and her books flew out of her arms, crashing against the floor. Some people turned to stare. Izumi wordlessly bent down to retrieve them, only to receive a sharp pain in the side of her head. Before she knew what happened, she was on her knees, a hand pressed against her throbbing head.

"What happened, Morioka-chan? Daijoubu?" Kikumaru's face came into view.

"Eiji…"

The girl in the middle laughed sneeringly. "You're so sly, Morioka! Pretending to be hurt just to get his sympathy!"

"Kikumaru BUSHIN!" He suddenly transformed into two, collecting her books and papers with lightning speed. The people in the classroom watched in awe. Some even applauded. "Here you are." He handed them to her, then leaned in and whispered loudly, "Don't worry; I didn't believe a word they said."

A hand was extended to her. "Are you all right?" Fuji asked.

She hesitatingly gave him her hand. She was surprised at his strength as he pulled her up from the ground. Fuji then let his open eyes rest on the three girls in a questioning manner. They recoiled in slight fear of being addressed by that beautiful, crystalline blue of his eyes.

"She's just playing the victim!" the girl in the middle accused. "We didn't touch her!"

"I see…" Fuji returned his gaze to Izumi. "Are you ready to go?"

"More than ready."

"Then, let's go…" He led her to the hallway outside. It was then when she realized that he was still holding her hand. She released her grip, but he didn't.

"Fuji-san… could you let go?"

"Gomen." He dropped her hand immediately upon her request. That made her wonder; if she hadn't reminded him, would he have kept holding it?

"D-did you see everything that happened?"

"No. When I walked in, Eiji was already helping you pick up your things. What happened?"

"Nothing, really… I actually don't know myself…" '_Was it just my headaches again?_' She made a mental note to check her temperature as soon as possible. She would _not_ (repeat, would _not_) allow herself to have a seizure in Fuji's presence.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Chiharu opened her locker and gasped as the books and pens fell out in a slide. Someone had painstakingly messed up the contents and rigged it so all the books would fall on her as she opened it. A small sigh escaped her lips as she gathered all her things and began putting them back in order.

"Chiharu-senpai?" Suzume appeared in the hallway. Her eyes narrowed at the mess. "Do you know who did it?"

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu looked at the second year, who she suspected was already planning revenge on whoever had destroyed her locker. "No, I'm sure I just moved the locker around too much so that when I opened it, everything inside had shifted…" She trailed off uncertainly.

"You should become a writer," Suzume snorted. "With that kind of imagination…"

Chiharu silently put everything back and took out the books she needed for the weekend.

"Chiharu-senpai…?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you always see the best in everybody?"

She pondered for a minute before smiling at her kohai. "Because it brings out the best in everybody."

Suzume stared at her. Even her brothers had said so, that under Chiharu's influence, she'd gone through a transformation. She argued that it wasn't true, that she still smoked, still brought home Ds, still dressed _outrageously, _still beat up people… And they'd told her that she'd changed, simply because she _cared_ about her senpai. '_It brings out the best in everybody…?_' "Let's go home."

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kimiko swung her racket a couple more times experimentally as she walked home. "Forehand slice, huh… It's so difficult. Maybe it's because I need to hit a shot that has topspin to make it work."

The sky was already darkening with night, now that the days were getting shorter. She walked by the river on her way to get home, seeing a familiar shadow swinging a racket over and over.

"Kaidoh-kun!" Quickly she slid down the hill to join him. "I see you here every day! I just never dropped by to say hi!"

He didn't reply and kept swinging his racket like he wanted to kill it.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" she asked.

"I'm training right now." he grunted.

"Okay…" She took the hint. Picking up a tennis ball from the ground, she said, "Can I borrow this?"

"As long as you don't disturb my training." he replied in an irritated tone.

Kimiko walked up to the rock wall that supported part of the bridge and began hitting the ball at it. After getting into a steady rhythm, she tried to hit the forehand slice again. Every time, she could hear the ball brushing its velvety surface against the rock, but it only traveled upwards about half an inch before falling back to earth. "Something doesn't feel right…" She pulled out the drawings from her bag and swung her racket slowly, trying to match the movements on the paper.

Kaidoh took long drink from his water bottle. "What are those?" he asked curiously.

"Hmm? These?" She held them out cheerfully. "They're drawings!"

"A-ah…" He looked at them and saw her over and over within the white pages. The drawings were amazingly detailed. "Did you draw them?"

"Hee, as if I could draw so well! Reina-senpai did them! She does this stuff for us a lot!" She smiled. "I'll bet she has some for you too!"

"Hn…" He sat down on the ground, taking a brief rest. Kimiko sat down across from him and began stretching.

"Neh, Kaidoh, why do you come here to train?"

"…I don't know…"

"It's really peaceful…" Kimiko said. "And there's a river…"

"Inui-senpai used to help me train in the river…" Kaidoh said aloud. '_Wait, why am I saying this?_' He seemed unusually talkative today. That was really strange.

"Really? How?" she asked.

"Ah… nothing really…" He looked to the side.

She pouted. "I want to know…"

He looked back at her. "Well, the Boomerang Snake was an accident at first, but Inui-senpai helped me by making me train with a towel in the river…"

"Hmm…" She nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe I should make Inui-senpai help me too. My shot was an accident too…" She stretched to the side. "He didn't make you test out his new drink or something as a price?"

He bit back a chuckle. "No, he made me become his doubles partner."

"Really?" Kimiko sat up, interested. "And it worked?"

"I refused him at first. But in the end, it really helped me in mastering the Boomerang Snake…"

"No, no, I mean the doubles combination. Did it work?"

"Ah… yeah… It turned out to be a really good combination. We're playing doubles in the upcoming tournament too…"

She looked down. "Oh, I see. Neh, Kaidoh, have you ever been in a doubles pairing that you felt might not work?"

He thought back. Of course, being paired with that baka Momoshiro wasn't really what he'd call an ideal pairing, but it also seemed to work, didn't it? Maybe because they were rivals and they knew each other all too well. "There were several pairings that I thought might not work, but they all did…"

Kimiko pulled out a lollipop and stared at it, twirling it around her fingers. "I don't think Akane and I make a good doubles pair… I think we just seemed good because we both played with individual strengths; we don't really have good combinations…"

"You won't know unless you try."

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Yuuta, is Nee-san home?" Fuji asked as they took off their shoes at the door. Izumi again marveled at how different the styles of their homes were—his home was more Western and trendy, whereas hers had TRADITIONAL written all over it.

"She called to say she would be a couple minutes late," His eyes rested on the newcomer. "Izumi-senpai! It's you again?"

"Nice to see you again, Yuuta-kun…" Izumi said.

"Izumi-san is going to be my next model." Fuji explained.

"Oh? So you aren't going to use Nee-san's contacts?" Yuuta nodded. "Well, at least this way you can avoid paying them to model, I guess…"

"That's not it…" Fuji said. "I like the way Izumi looks…"

The way he said it made her feel hot behind her eyes. Yuuta gave his brother a strange look.

"Yuuta decided to come home again? I didn't know that sis was baking pies today…" Fuji murmured.

"I don't just come home for the pies, you know…"

After a moment, they were all sitting at the table drinking tea that Fuji brought out. He insisted that they needed to wait for his sister before they could start shooting; she was the makeup artist after all. They actually had _chairs, _Izumi thought. Her family kneeled on the ground to eat from a table that was barely higher than her calf. Can anyone say TRADITIONAL?

"Do you like St. Rudolph, Yuuta-kun?" Izumi asked.

"Hmm… sure, I guess. School's kind of the same everywhere…" He shrugged. "The tennis team is always the best part of school…"

Izumi let out a small smile. "How's the girl team at your school?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Personally… they kind of scare me, a little. They're pretty good, I guess, but they kind of… you remember Higa?" he asked his brother. "Higa Chu? They remind me of them…"

"So…" Fuji sipped his tea. "They play dirty, huh…"

"But yeah, they're pretty good… Mizuki chose them…"

"Oh, that explains everything…" Fuji muttered.

"Eh?" Izumi turned to him, confused.

"Nothing," He put his cup down. "Did you go with Nee-chan to the doctor's today?"

"Yeah…" He lifted his left arm. "It's fine now. As long as I don't hit the Twist Spin Shot too much, it'll be perfectly okay."

"Where did you go?" Izumi asked curiously.

"The Tsuchira hospital? I heard it's the best in Tokyo…"

Izumi put her cup down with force enough to rattle the saucer. '_The world is small indeed…_'

"Oi, Izumi-senpai… are you all right?" Yuuta asked. Both brothers had expressions of concern written on the faces.

"I'm fine…" '_Yuuta goes there, Chiharu goes there, Reina goes there, Tezuka goes there, Akane goes (went) there…_ _This secret is getting impossible to keep._'

"Do you play the piano…?" she suddenly asked, her eyes resting on the large instrument made of polished wood that was against the wall. There were several photos resting on top.

"No, that's mine," Yuuta said. "I used to play a little. Aniki plays the flute."

Izumi noted the long black case that rested on top of the piano as well.

"It's rather small in comparison, isn't it?" Fuji chuckled.

"Do you still play?"

"Sometimes, but only when I feel like it," he said.

"Tadaima!" A female voice called from the door. "I'm home!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

After about another hour of swinging, both Kimiko and Kaidoh decided to call it a day. When looking at the marks on the wall, Kimiko smiled, noting that the ball had crawled upwards almost an inch and a half on her last attempt. She now understood why Kaidoh came and practiced every day—it was to achieve great results in little time. However, she doubted she'd be able to keep it up. She was lazy by nature.

Even as the days were getting cooler, she still managed to work up a sweat and fanned herself. "It's hot…" The water looked very inviting. '_Why not?_' With no second thoughts, no glances backwards, she cannon-balled straight into the river.

Kaidoh turned around just to get hit in the face with a splash of water.

It was much deeper than she anticipated, and she came up sputtering and laughing at the same time.

"Oi! Why'd you do that?" Kaidoh growled in his deep voice, not so much anger as shock.

"Why?" Kimiko waded the water easily. "Because I've never done it before." she said in reply, as if it was completely obvious.

'_Because she'd… never done it before…_' Kaidoh, as if possessed, suddenly hurled himself into the river along with her.

Kimiko laughed delightedly as she nearly drowned with the wave he created. "Kaidoh! What on earth are you doing?"

"I have absolutely no idea." He got out of the water immediately and climbed onto the bank.

She swam to the edge. "It's kind of fun to do something spontaneous though, isn't it?" She tried to push herself onto the bank, but fell back into the water. "Huh?" She tried harder. She put her elbows on the bank and tried to lift herself. She tried putting a leg up first. All attempts resulted into splashing right back into the watery blue. '_I'm probably tired from all the training…_'

The sounds of her struggling annoyed him, yet at the same time he wanted to laugh. "JUST GIVE ME YOUR HAND, DAMMIT!"

"Uh… okay?" Kimiko reached out and grasped his hand. He yanked her out of the water with so much force, she bounced right onto the bank like he was landing a trout. '_She's light…_'

"Oof…" And she began giggling again.

"Meow…" Suddenly a cat appeared out of nowhere and began rubbing itself against Kaidoh's legs, licking the moisture off of his ankles.

"Scram…" he said to the cat, mostly for Kimiko's benefit. "Go away…"

She sat up. "You don't have to pretend for me, Kaidoh-kun." A chuckle escaped her lips.

"What?"

She giggled again. "I saw you playing with a cat by the road once. Near the playground? You have a soft spot for animals, don't you?"

A light blush covered his cheeks as he sat down and allowed the cat to rub itself around his ankles.

"Iggy! Where are you?" A woman was wandering around the streets, looking for something. The cat's ears perked up when it heard her voice. "Meow?"

She heard the cat and wandered towards the sound. Suddenly, she caught sight of Kaidoh reaching out to pet it and charged towards him. "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO WITH MY IGGY?" Barging forward, she hit him on the side of his head with her purse and grabbed her cat from the ground.

"Ano, I wasn't…" Kaidoh began.

"Careful Iggy, you have to stay away from scary men like that. I don't know what he'd do with you…" The woman gave him a glare before walking away.

Kaidoh folded his hands into fists in anger. Somehow this scene had a déjà vu feeling about it. It wasn't the first time he was accused of threatening little animals. He ground his teeth together before closing his eyes. "Fshuuuu…"

"Hee…" It started out as a giggle, but then Kimiko couldn't restrain her laughter. She clutched her sides and rolled in the grass, laughing. She laughed until her stomach hurt and tears formed in her eyes.

"Oi…" Kaidoh said, not finding the situation funny at all. "Stop laughing like an idiot."

"Ah gomen!" She sat up, wiping the tears away. "It's just that… someone actually thought you were _scary_…" She burst into another fit of laughter.

He just eyed her, confused.

"I mean, the thought that (_giggle_) someone as cute as you being scary…" She put a hand over her mouth in attempt to smother her laughter. Somehow she was imagining little stuffed cats giving death glares and teddy bears holding up knives and saying '_Die, die_' in squeaky voices.

He turned his head away so she wouldn't see him blush.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Nee-san, I'm leaving it to you then," Fuji said. "I'll get the room set up."

"No problem," Yumiko replied. "Izumi-san, do you want to shower first?"

She nodded gratefully. Training had been harsh that day, and her uniform was stained with sweat. Yumiko handed her a towel and a robe, opening the door to the bathroom. "Go right inside."

Izumi washed away a day's worth of grime and filth. Yet there was something she couldn't wash away, and that was guilt. In all of the training sessions, she hadn't been playing very seriously. In fact, several times she could've won another point if she just pushed herself a little more, yet she didn't. She often let the point, the game, the set slide, and gave up. She even chose Inui Juice over pushing herself towards her goal. If there was an easy way out, she took it.

It wasn't just that that made her feel guilty. She was getting too close to Fuji. She knew it; she had felt it from the very beginning, from when he'd comforted her after the midterm results. But she couldn't push him away. She tried to, lord knows she tried to, but the connection between them was almost _magnetic_ in a sense. As if the more she tried to separate them, the closer they became.

And she'd be lying if she said that she didn't want them to be close.

She managed to make a bit of small talk with Yumiko as the latter brushed shadow over her eyes and applied foundation and blusher. She was thankful when the makeup artist began working on her lips; that way she could avoid talking and just concentrate on her thoughts. So caught up in her feelings, she didn't even notice what Yumiko was doing to her face.

"Yumiko-san…" Izumi said as she began to blow dry her hair. "Have any of Fuji-san's other classmates ever modeled for him?"

"Hmm…" She turned off the blow dryer and ran a comb through her long dark hair. "There was this one girl that Syusuke used a couple of times, but she seemed to take things the wrong way, so he stopped after a while…"

"Take things the wrong way?" Izumi echoed.

"Syusuke's always been a very gentle person. He's kind to everyone. Some girls, I suppose, think that they're getting some special treatment from him, so they think that he's interested, _that_ way. And on top of that, some things between a photographer and model can be rather _intimate_, I guess."

"W-what?" Izumi tensed up visibly.

Yumiko laughed. "You're kind of conservative, aren't you? Don't worry, we picked a kimono out for you…"

She relaxed a little. Kimonos showed as little skin as possible.

"He was considering using Chiharu-san for portraits, but decided against it later. Chiharu has beautiful eyes, you know? And then of course, no amount of convincing would allow Tezuka-san to model for him."

"Has Fuji-san ever… had any girlfriends?" she asked, hesitatingly but curiously.

"Not really," Yumiko replied after a moment's thought. "He went out a few times with a couple of girls, but he never seemed to like them back. I don't know what he's looking for in a person, but it appears he hasn't found it yet," She wound part of Izumi's hair into a knot and allowed the rest to flow out artistically. "How about you, Izumi-san? Ever had any boyfriends?" she asked mischievously as she started adding ornaments.

"No!" she said reflexively. "Ano… I guess I have pretty high standards."

She leaned in. "And does Syusuke meet those standards?"

Izumi's speechlessness caused her to laugh again. "It's okay, you don't have to answer that." She helped her into the kimono, tying the obi in place carefully. "You look perfect… The studio is two doors down from the room where he displays all his pictures."

Izumi stepped into two wooden flip-flops before making her way to the door. She glanced back at Yumiko. "Go on!" the latter encouraged her. However, before Izumi could reach for the doorknob, the door opened on its own.

"Nee-san, are you done ye—" Fuji's words were lost in his throat when he set eyes on her. He froze. All he could do was stare.

Once again, his sister had proven her skill as a makeup artist.

"Is it…" Izumi stopped, wondering how she would phrase her question. "The way you imagined it?" she finally asked, looking down at the embroidered silk.

He nodded, the smile returning. "It's perfect. Follow me."

As she walked behind him towards the studio, she suddenly had the image of a bride walking to the altar.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ne, Kaidoh-kun?" Kimiko asked as she pulled her regular jersey around her. A few minutes ago, she'd remembered that her tennis uniform was _white_, and that she shouldn't have gotten it wet… But the jersey took care of covering her. "I had fun today. Can I come train with you again?"

He just looked at her.

"Like, not every day…" she amended. "Since I'm pretty lazy… but you know, once in a while?"

He began walking away. "As long as it doesn't interfere with my training."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Oi, Take-nii, don't you think you're eating a little much?" Sayaka said, mildly horrified at the speed and amount her twin was eating.

"Momo-senpai is always like that…" Ryoma muttered as he munched on his hamburger. "Shouldn't you know, being his twin and all?"

"Well, still… He's still hungry when he gets home, so I wouldn't expect him to eat _this much_ after practice and still have enough room for a supersized dinner." Sayaka rubbed her forehead as she ate her fries.

"Ohayo, Momoshiro-kun!" A girl suddenly came into view, carrying a tray. She was very cute, Sayaka noted. "Mind if we sit here?"

"Tachibana's little sister…" Momoshiro murmured to himself. "Of course, go ahead."

"I have a name, you know. It's Ann!"

"Oi, Ann-chan, shouldn't we sit over there?" Another voice said. Momoshiro lifted his head.

"Yo, Kamio!"

She smiled. "No, let's sit here." Kamio made a noise of dissatisfaction, but obeyed.

"Hey, this is my twin, Sayaka…" Momoshiro introduced, slapping her on the shoulder.

"Ah!" Ann waved in greeting. "Nice to meet you! Strange, Momoshiro never mentioned he had a twin…"

"Yeah, he kinda acts like I don't exist…" Sayaka said. "So you're Kamio?" He nodded. "You don't look like Kimura at all. She has a bit of a darker skin color and her hair is a bit darker too. And it's long than yours, even if your hair styles are similar…"

"Kimura?"

"Yeah, my brother—" she jerked her thumb at him. "—the idiot sitting there, called this girl at school a "Kamio-wannabe", so I've been interested in seeing what you look like ever since."

" 'KAMIO-WANNABE?'" Kamio grabbed Momoshiro by the scruff of his shirt. "TEME, WHAT IS THA T SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

"Speaking of which, how is the girl team at your school anyways?" Ann asked, ignoring the argument in the background.

"We're okay, I guess." Sayaka said. Momoshiro and Kamio broke it up and sat down, huffing angrily. "I mean, the formation of a new team isn't really easy."

Kamio smiled proudly. "Ann-chan made it as a regular on our girl team!"

"Really?" Momoshiro asked. "I knew you would! After the way you played against me before…"

"We're going to crush Seigaku this time, both boys and girls!" Kamio proclaimed, slightly miffed that Momoshiro referred to the time where he played tennis with Ann, _alone. _The event still struck jealousy within him.

"Oh really?" All three of the Seigaku regulars said at the same time.

"Momoshiro, are you actually going to play this time?" Kamio asked, smirking. "Or are you going to sit out again?"

"I don't know…" Momoshiro looked upwards. "Maybe I'll sit out just so I can watch Mamushi have you for lunch again."

"BASTARD!"

"Actually, we might not even see each other on the courts…" Momoshiro suddenly realized. "I'm playing mixed doubles with Sayaka. Who's playing mixed doubles for your team?"

Kamio and Ann looked at each other. "I think… maybe Saki-senpai and Ishida-kun, right?" Ann said uncertainly. "And maybe… Megumi-chan and Sakurai-kun? We're not really sure about our mixed doubles. But all the girls on the team have amazing tennis skills, and you know the potential of our boy team."

"Well, we aren't exactly _weak_ either…" Sayaka said.

"Dude, there's no way you can beat Saki-senpai! She's playing singles one too!" Kamio turned his head to Ryoma. "Her Nitouryuu is superior to yours!"

"Is that so…" Ryoma drank his Ponta, not really caring. "Well, she's a girl isn't she? We wouldn't be able to play against each other anyways…"

"She's really good!" Kamio went on. "She beat Shinji in 15 minutes!"

Ryoma almost choked.

Now _that_ was interesting.

"Fifteen minutes?" Momoshiro exclaimed. "Oi, even Echizen couldn't do that! Who _is_ this girl of yours?"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"…wow…" was all Izumi could say when she entered the room. It was dimly lit, with lights set up around the area in the middle. There was a table in the middle on top of straw mats. A Japanese styled rice paper screen was also to the side, pink and white flowers painted upon it. There was also what appeared to be half a wall, shrunken in size so it was only a bit taller than she was, with Japanese style windows. In the back, there were huge sized landscape posters that could be rolled down for a different background. Looking around, she could also see plenty of props—fans, lanterns, flowers (and petals), all to enhance the beauty of the photo down to the most miniscule detail.

It was more than she expected out of an amateur high school student photographer. It was… nearly professional.

"Where did you get all this?" she asked, fingering a calligraphy brush set that was on the table.

"My sister is a makeup artist for an ad company…" Fuji explained. "She gets a lot of this stuff for me. Most of it's on loan though." He motioned towards the screen. "Shall we begin?"

"O-okay…" She walked towards it. "What do you want me to do?" she asked as she stood by it awkwardly.

"Here… If you put your hand here…" He reached out and took her arm gently. She flinched.

"Maybe… maybe you should just tell me…" she suggested quietly, removing her arm from his hand. '_Is this what Yumiko-san meant by "intimate"_?'

"Put your arm up here, like this," This time he demonstrated rather than touching her. He held up a finger and moved it to her left. "Good, now turn your head over here." She followed his directions. "Okay, now look downwards a little… Chin down a bit… Okay, don't move." He reached out to adjust one of the lights so it was brighter. Then he got his camera out and took a few pictures.

_Click. Click. Click._

"Close your eyes…" he said softly. The way he said it, or maybe it was just his voice in general, sent shivers down her spine. She obeyed him, allowing the long lashes to brush her cheeks. They weren't hers—Yumiko had put in fake ones, but they accentuated her eyes beautifully.

He took a few more pictures. Something about her puzzled him. So many times she'd distanced herself from him even as they became closer… the pulling away, the flinching upon contact, and yet… she'd confessed part of her feelings towards him outside the hospital, hadn't she? She'd taken his hand this afternoon, hadn't she? She'd _agreed_ to help him with the photo shoot as well.

Like a ripple… Though it may lap at your feet, if you reach for it, it pulls away farther.

"Here," He handed her a white rose and told her to kneel in front of the screen. "Put the flower next to your face…" She did so, feeling the velvety petals brush her cheek. "A little lower…" he told her. She listened until he had her positioned just the way he wanted it, and took several more photos.

'_It might be easier if I just let him touch me and adjust things himself instead of telling me verbally…_' Izumi thought. '_But I can't, I can't._'

"I'm turning on flash now, Izumi-san," Fuji said as he flicked a switch on his camera. Izumi had noticed the glares set up next to the lights to reflect the flash. "You might be blinded for a bit."

He pressed the capture button, and there was an explosion of light. For a moment, all she saw was purple spots in front of her eyes.

He had her do several more poses. She made the action of opening a fan seem extremely graceful—he took several frames for that one, as to mildly blur the edges of the fan. He had her pose with the lanterns and pretend to perform calligraphy with the brushes.

He put a light next to her right cheek and turned it on. She closed her eyes tightly for a brief second at the sudden brightness.

"Gomen, I should've warned you…" Fuji apologized.

"What are you doing?" she asked, curious.

"It's like Rembrandt lighting. I'm only lighting up half of your face so the rest is dark." He went back and adjusted the height of the light. "Okay, now look directly at me."

He held up the camera and nearly dropped it the minute she lifted her eyes to his. Onyx black clashed with crystalline blue; they both felt a jolt. Her eyes… they were so deep, with so much raw emotion that seemed struggling to be set free. The lighting cast little globes of illumination within them, making them like twin galaxies, mysterious as they were stunning. With trembling fingers he pressed the capture button.

Next, he moved the table out of the way and had her lie down on the straw mat. He knelt down next to her and slowly reached forward… so slowly, as if giving her a chance to pull away… and smoothed down a lock of her hair. Equally gently and gradually, he lifted her arm and put it next to her face. Izumi tensed when his skin met hers, but she didn't pull away. His smiling expression gave way to one of concentration. Finally, he appeared satisfied, and stepped back, lifting the camera to his face.

"Close your eyes…" he said again. After a while, he said, "Can you change your expression?"

"Eh?" Izumi opened her eyes and looked at him. "What expression would that be?"

"Something other than… 'I just passed out from Inui Juice'?" He chuckled slightly.

A small smile crossed her lips as she closed her eyes again.

"More like… 'sleeping', I guess…" Fuji suggested. "Saa, put that smile back. I liked it."

"What smile?" she asked with her eyes still closed.

"Must I make another Inui Juice joke to have it reappear?"

That did it. The smile made its way back onto her face, and he pressed the button with a satisfying click. He took a few more before offering his hand to her again. "We're done. Now come with me for a moment. There's something I want you to see."

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"The pictures are all beautiful…" Izumi said as she walked by. They were in the room where he displayed all his photos again.

"I wanted you to see this one." he said. She walked over and drew in a sharp intake of breath.

It was her. It was the picture he'd taken of her that day it rained. It was when he surprised her and she turned around, only to be captured on camera. She stared at the way her hair had swirled outwards, how surprise had etched itself onto her features. It was so awfully strange, staring at herself. Yet she liked it.

"Did you edit this one on the computer too?" she asked.

"If I did, I probably would have impaired its beauty…" Fuji said. "It's perfect the way it is."

She turned to him with a look on her face that said, '_Don't say things like that…_'

"It's an amazing thing, photography…" She traced a finger around the pictures. "The fact that you can capture a single moment, a single emotion, and compress it within layers of color. Sometimes I want to be live _in_ the picture forever…"

"Why is that?"

Her eyes looked sad. "You should know as a photographer, you can take a million pictures of the same thing and no two of them would look the same," She turned to look at him. "Isn't like that with feelings too? There are these moments where I just want to _preserve_, to hang on to and never let go… as if I could live in that _one moment_, and have that single feeling forever…" She closed her eyes. "Because sometimes to feel it once… it's just not enough."

"Then why… not? Why wouldn't you want to live in the picture…?"

"Because…" Her voice trembled as she replied simply, "The colors don't change."

He opened his eyes. Why is it, when she said things like this, they were just so _deep_? He suddenly thought back to the practice match between Sayaka and Suzume.

"_She's so… crippled... She's so close to flying, so close… yet she doesn't have wings._'

The things she said, they all carried a heavy tone of melancholy about them. Yet saying them seemed to make her equally sad. Again, he thought of the essay she'd once written for Language class; he remembered a line within it: '_Like that feeling when you get after winning a medal, and then you scrape it and it's not gold at all, it's paint…_' Impulsively he reached out and took her hands within his.

She didn't flinch. She didn't pull away. She knew she should. She didn't deserve this; she couldn't be worthy enough to accept his kindness. And yet she couldn't move. His hands were so warm. Pulling her hands away now would be like wrenching out her heart. She just couldn't do it. All she could do was close her eyes as a single tear traced its way down her cheek.

All she could do was think that this was one of the moments she wanted to preserve forever.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_A few miles away…_

Suzume picked up her home phone and dialed a number, surprised that she still knew it from memory. She hadn't dialed this number in months. "Hey, it's me, senpai…"

"Suzume? I haven't heard from you in a while."

She kicked back onto her bed. "I heard you transferred from that Christian hell they called 'missionary school'… Where are you now?"

"Suzume, don't insult my religion, please."

Suzume's eyes widened. "Wait… what's going on? I thought you hated being Christian."

"I don't anymore. I have found comfort in Jesus. He forgave my sins."

'_This is the senpai who used to hang out with me? This is the person who told me where to buy my cigarettes and what arcades had the best games?_' "Your parents had made you into them." she stated. The flat voice, the constant references to Jesus… Suzume couldn't even convey the amount of disappointment she felt. '_And I thought she was a rebel… someone I could look up to._'

"Suzume… (_sigh_) I'll say a prayer for you."

"You know what? Don't bother, Saki-senpai. You can tell Jesus to drag me to hell himself."

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End Chapter Eleven

Oooh, cliffhanger~ Who is this old acquaintance of Suzume?

Actually, in my 'semi-AU' fanfic, Seigaku hasn't met Higa Chu yet. I just put that in there for _your _benefit, since Higa Chu is known for taking any methods to win. Yes, that includes playing dirty.

Next chapter will probably contain some Seigaku vs. Fudomine action! I'm speeding up the plot a bit. And after that, it'll be winter! Christmas fluff, anyone?

Next chapter will also go deeper into Akane as well. This girl (ex) captain has a dark side, and we are just about to find out what it is.

Review!


	13. District Preliminaries!

**Disclaimer: Don't own Prince of Tennis, only the OCs in this story.**

A/N: Short chapter update—bear with me. I planned to summarize the district preliminaries into one whole chapter, but it was over 30 pages long. (And I'm still not done with it.) Therefore, I cut it in half.

The matches for the next chapter will be _slightly_ detailed, but not as much as the matches in chapter 6, 7 and 8.

I will start following the proper PoT canon AFTER the matches with Yamabuki, I believe. Which means, yes, Tezuka will most likely re-injure his arm with Atobe in Hyotei matches (so the canon goes). And yes, Seigaku will meet Rikkaidai in the finals.

Akane's dark side isn't completely explained yet, though vaguely hinted. And apparently Tachibana Ann is supposed to be spelled "An", but since Microsoft Word glares at me with green lines when I type "An", I shall be using "Ann".

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter 13: District Preliminaries!**

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"Man, we _owned_ Koshikawa High…" Sayaka said as she slapped a high-five with her twin. Even though both of them had sat out during the matches, they witnessed total Seigaku domination, male _and_ female. Just watching had set fire to their passion, and their hands itched for their rackets. They vented their frustrations against Koshikawa mixed doubles, the latter showing absolutely no resistance against the twins.

"We still have another match before we go into finals," Tezuka said. "We mustn't let our guards down."

"Hai, hai…" The team replied easily.

The team made its way to a fast food restaurant next to where the tennis courts were. They still had a match after lunch. However, do to the tournament drawings that had taken place a couple weeks ago, Fudomine had 1 more school match than Seigaku did. Inui and Reina were currently missing from the group in order to gather data.

Kimiko picked lifelessly at her fries. She wasn't eating; she was just ripping them up into smaller pieces so it looked like she was eating. Akane noted the strange behavior in the normally cheerful girl. "Oi, Kimiko. You aren't still upset that they won 2 games from us, are you?"

"We should've won 6-0," Kimiko said quietly. "Everyone else won 6-0, except for that other doubles pair."

She was referring to the Sakuno-Aiko pair. They, miraculously, had won their match, but at a score of 7-5. The pair they were against had neither their skill nor their talent, but had a sense of compatibility and combination that the two lacked.

"Kimiko—"

"It doesn't work," Kimiko said to her food. "It just doesn't work. We just don't… _click_, you know?"

"It won't work at all if you keep thinking like that."

She stood up. "Akane-buchou, for once, could you just _listen_ to me? It's not working out, okay? I think I felt it a long time ago, but the last game confirmed my suspicions! We aren't compatible! And you're telling me this is all in my _head_?"

The whole area was silent. Diners dropped their plastic forks and spoons. Momoshiro stopped fooling around with Sayaka. Kaidoh raised his eyebrows. Inui dropped his pen.

Tears sprang into her eyes, blurring their lavender color. "I'm sorry, okay? But I don't _want_ to be your partner anymore!" With that, she pushed open the door and let it close behind her with a _swoosh_.

Everyone's eyes riveted to Akane. She exhaled, looking at the food in front of her, before looking up. "Ryuzaki-sensei, I request permission to change the roster against Mizunohuchi High." she said, in a perfectly businesslike and calm manner.

"EH?"

"Shouldn't you try to fix your relationship with your partner?" Kikumaru asked. "I mean, Oishi and I have fallen out a couple times, but we always patched it up nya," He grinned at his partner. "Right?"

"A-ah… Akane-san, maybe you should consider this first…" Oishi suggested worriedly.

"Okay…" She sat silent for about five seconds, and then looked up again. "Done. Now can we change the roster?"

All of them sweatdropped. Trust Akane to be practical and level headed, even when her partner just quit on her.

The only person who wasn't watching the event with a shocked expression was Suzume. She couldn't care less—as long as she won all her games 6-0, and Seigaku advanced to the next round every time, these minor setbacks were nothing. In the meantime, she was sitting at her own table, on her phone. "I'm at the fast food place near the fountains… no, not _those_ fountains, the ones where the entrance is, you know? Come and meet me. No, I'm serious…"

"Should we send someone out to get Marui-san?" Oishi asked anxiously.

"Give her some time," Akane replied, looking out the window. "She'll figure it out."

'_She won't. She's not coming back. She's no longer my partner. In truth, she hasn't been for a long time. But she's so naïve! How can she expect a new doubles pair to work out in the middle of a tournament? The girl lacks common sense._'

The little bell on the door twinkled, noting the arrival of someone. The Seigaku team members looked up, hoping to see Kimiko back. Who they saw was the direct opposite.

"Akutsu!" Kawamura exclaimed.

He was dressed in the normal white Yamabuki uniform, which indicated that he hadn't taken up tennis again. He walked in as if he owned the place, bumping into tables and waiters and not bothering to apologize. And to everyone's surprise, he calmly walked in and sat across from Suzume.

"Dude, thanks for meeting me." Suzume reached out and punched his fist in greeting.

"Oi… you two _know_ each other?" Momoshiro asked incredulously.

"What's it to you?" Akutsu snapped, but Suzume said, "Yeah, we're old friends. He beat all the pupils in my family dojo when he was just a first year in junior high. Nasty stuff, but you gotta respect him for that."

Akutsu looked at her. "You tell your brother Ren that I still owe him a punch in the face for winning me."

She smirked. "Why don't you beat me first?"

"Don't try me, Kimura," He slung his arm on the back of the chair. "Now what'd you call me out for? It better be good."

She leaned forward, her expression becoming serious. "Have you been in touch with Saki-senpai lately?"

"Matsuyama?" he sneered. "Of course not."

"Akutsu-senpai, I'm serious. I know you and her have always had a thing going…"

"Not anymore," he scoffed. "The girl has become a Christian nut."

She looked down at her hands. "So it's true. I called her a few days ago, and she was all like, 'Jesus forgave my sins…' I didn't want to believe it. I thought it was some ploy to… I don't know, make me less _rebellious_ or something."

"You know what kind of parents that girl had." Akustu said, looking outside.

Suzume knew. She'd never seen parents that treated their children like that. In fact, if she was in her senpai's shoes, she probably wouldn't have lasted that long. She'd probably pack and run away. Come to think of it, Saki-senpai _did_ run away, didn't she? Except soon after she was caught by her parents and shipped off to a Christian missionary school where the nuns looked at you as if you smelled. "I can't believe she really changed…"

He got up from the seat, apparently bored with the conversation. "She wouldn't have needed to change to encourage you to be less rebellious. You've also changed, Kimura. Ever since that incident…" Suzume fixed her glare on him and he stopped. "Oh, that's a scary look. Heh, well I guess I can't expect much from you anymore. Ja."

As he turned away, she spoke. "You're one to talk; pretending you haven't changed at all."

He stopped and turned his head slightly back to look at her. After a while, he walked on, the hint of a smile on his lips. As he walked by Ryoma, he punched him lightly on the cheek. The bell on the door jingled as he walked outside.

'_Akutsu knows of it too…_' Chiharu thought. Secretly, she wondered how many other people knew.

"Oi, Kimura…" Sayaka said. "The Saki-senpai you just talked about…" She exchanged a glance with Momoshiro. "Couldn't be the one Kamio was talking about, from Fudomine?"

"It doesn't matter. The Saki-senpai I knew is dead." Suzume pulled out a cigarette and put it between her teeth, lit it, and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Fudomine, huh…"

"Kimura! No smoking when I'm around!" Coach Ryuzaki reprimanded sharply.

She crushed the tip against her thumb, not even wincing as it burned her skin. "Sorry. Forgot."

"We'll hear more about it when Inui and Watanabe get back from scouting." Tezuka said.

"Get back from where? I can't be in two places at once." Inui suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as if he had been sitting at their table all along.

"AAAUGH! INUI!" All the regulars fell over, clutching their chests. (Fuji and Tezuka are exceptions. They're used to it.) "You nearly gave us heart attacks!"

"Brief us, Inui." Tezuka ordered.

"Fudomine passed through round one easily. Doubles 2, Ishida-Sakurai pair, 6-0. Doubles 1, Ibu-Kamio pair, 6-0. Singles 3, Mor—"

"Were they all 6-0 or not?" Akane interrupted.

"Yes, they were." Inui concluded.

"Cool. Reina, talk to us." Akane demanded. She didn't see why Inui still had to brief the guys on the Fudomine team; they knew their styles and have played them many times already. It was more important that they gather information on the girls' team, for god's sake! Or maybe she was just being selfish for her team. She wasn't in a particularly gracious mood. "No vocab. I'm serious."

"Fudomine girls also passed through with little effort. All games were won 6-0," Reina paused, since that was all Akane wanted to hear from Inui. "Should I go on?"

"Yes, go on. But please. Concise, concise, CONCISE."

"They're adopting a tactic similar to Yamabuki's boy team. They put enormous focus on doubles. I believe they plan to take us in three matches, winning both doubles and the 3rd singles."

"Not bad, Reina." Akane finally cracked a smile.

"I disagree, Reina-san," Inui suddenly cut in, notebook in hand. She shot him a swift look. "I think you're overanalyzing the situation. All girl teams are unseeded, so there is no chance of Fudomine being underestimated. And after watching the doubles matches, I think that their team has a sort of trust that we lack. They aren't planning to take us in the first three matches. They're just naturally good at doubles. Fudomine has always had a united team spirit," He closed his notebook. "Besides, Tachibana has great experience in building teams from scratch."

Suzume tossed her cigarette into the trash. "Did a girl called Matsuyama play in Singles 3?" she asked offhandedly.

"No," Inui murmured. "Singles 3 was played by Tachibana's little sister, Ann."

"Then Watanabe-senpai overanalyzed, and you have no idea who you're dealing with."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Matsuyama Sakiko," Inui read from his notebook. "Dominant hand: …Unknown."

"What!" Momoshiro looked up. "How can you not know something as simple as that?"

Suzume also looked shocked. "Didn't you go watch all the opening matches after you finished your doubles 2 with Kaidoh? All five matches were played, right? All the way up to Singles 1. She's left handed."

Inui shook his head. "She played three games with her left hand, and three games with her right. Not a hint of awkwardness in whichever is her less dominant hand. That's something even Tezuka and Echizen can't do," He touched his glasses briefly. The other two appeared to be more interested now that their names were mentioned. "According to my data, she's fully ambidextrous."

Suzume looked at the empty ashtray on the table. She remembered everything about her senpai—how she dealt tarot cards with her left hand, how she flicked ash off her cigarette with her left index finger, how she rolled the dice and held the poker cards with her left hand, and how she reached for her gambling earnings with her left hand. And how, every time, every single time, she had crushed Suzume on the tennis court with her left hand. Her left hand was obviously her dominant one. How could she be ambidextrous? It didn't make sense.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kimiko had been sitting alone for a while now, the wind brushing through her magenta hair. She couldn't quite believe what she'd done. She'd just _quit_ on her partner, who was her partner for nearly a whole _year_. She'd forced a split between their doubles 1 pair. And she wasn't even sure why. Even _she_ had enough sense to know what she did was utterly _stupid_.

'_I should've waited till _after_ the tournament._' Sighing, she pulled her headphones out of her bag (Big, bulky headphones—not the cute little iPod ones—like the ones they use for sound recording) and shoved them over her head.

She failed to submerge herself within the music. The music was loud, but her thoughts were louder. She reached for the off button of her CD player and slung her headphones over her neck. Yes, she used a CD player. She didn't understand why everyone had switched to iPods after they came out. CDs had _much_ better quality than MP3 files.

Why had she been so inclined to believe Bunta anyways? For all she knew, he could be trying to weaken their team so his own school's team would have a better chance of winning.

'_You know you don't fit well together. You can just feel it…_' the little voice in her head said.

So she sat there and thought.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, something was thrown lightly towards her and hit her in the chest. It bounced off and fell onto the ground. She picked it up, brushing off the tiny bits of dirt and gravel. It was a carton of milk. She looked up to see who the thrower was, although she'd already guessed.

"Arigato, Kaidoh-kun!" she said, poking the straw through and drinking happily.

He looked embarrassed. "I—I didn't buy it for you!" he insisted. "I bought an extra one by mistake!" He walked off, muttering to himself.

She didn't mind that he denied buying it for her. The facts spoke for themselves; he _did_ give it to her. She giggled to herself. Somehow, he was treating her like he treated kittens. She didn't mind being a kitten. It was fine with her.

'_Back to thinking about doubles…_' she forced herself. '_Concentrate, concentrate.'_

Bunta had said that she needed a strong defensive player to compliment her. The logical choice, of course, would be Ryuzaki Sakuno. She never tries to 'steal' the ball from her partner, and she always goes to cover the empty court. Then there was Aiko, who didn't have much of a feel for doubles but seemed to _want_ to hit the ball a lot. And Kimiko was only so glad to relent. She was always the more passive one in playing doubles. Besides, Bunta had recommended her… sort of.

Mentally she hit herself on the side of her head and told herself to be practical. Logical. Yes.

But this is Kimiko we're talking about. And she always went the way she felt.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ne, Aiko-senpai?" Kimiko approached her. "Will you play doubles with me?"

Blink.

"Ano, it's okay if you don't want to! I just thought we might make a good doubles pair! Maybe, you know?" She smiled cheerfully.

Double blink.

"Umm…" Aiko paused for a second. "I'll be right back." A moment later she came back, dragging Ryoma by the cuff of his shirt. She said something to him in English, and he turned to Kimiko with an annoyed expression. "Marui-senpai, could you say whatever you said again? She says you talk too fast."

"Oh! Gomenasai!" She bowed quickly. "I just asked her if she'd play doubles with me! But maybe not in this tournament, since I'm sure Ryuzaki-sensei and the others decided a suitable roster already! And it's okay if she doesn't want to, I understand! We've never played together before, so—" Kimiko realized she was blabbering and shut her mouth.

Aiko looked at Ryoma. "So… what was that?" she said in accented Japanese.

Ryoma said about three words in English.

"I would like to try doubles with you, if sensei and the others allowed it." she said to Kimiko. She felt herself go red as she always did when speaking the language, since she had no idea if she was pronouncing the words properly.

"Really?" Kimiko's whole face lit up, like a million invisible lights were suddenly turned on. "Thank you so much!"

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"Akane-buchou!"

Akane looked up from the tennis booklet she was reading. So far, there hadn't been any articles about the Seigaku girl team printed. She saw one on the Hyotei girl team, but it had been pretty general and ambiguous. Her cerulean eyes shifted back and forth for the source of the voice, even though she knew who it was—only one person still called her 'buchou'. Suddenly, she was glomped from behind.

"Hee!" Kimiko said as she bounced down onto the chair to join her. "I'm sorry about lunch, by the way! Wait, no, I should apologize formally!" She got down from the bench and bowed. "Akane-buchou, please excuse my behavior from earlier. I was really frustrated… and…" Suddenly, she felt rather shy.

Akane just rolled her eyes. "Okay, you're back to normal," she said, a wry smile on her face. Kimiko jumped her again, knowing this was Akane's way of saying "I forgive you". Her neck hurt from where Kimiko was hanging on so tightly. "That's… nice to hear… I guess? By the way, we changed the roster."

"Yay!" Kimiko squealed, and Akane couldn't help but feel _slightly_ hurt at being cast aside. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that, Akane-buchou! But you know, we really don't fit so well, heheh..."

"Well, you're right, we should broaden our horizons." Akane said. "You're playing with Aiko, if that's okay with you?"

Kimiko's eyes shone. "Really? I just asked her if she would try doubles with me!"

"I hope you can help her evolve into a doubles player…" Akane said. "Doubles with her won't be easy. She isn't really the type."

"Well, it'll work out somehow!"

'_She's so naïve…'_

"Neh, Akane-buchou…" She smiled. "Thanks for everything, you know? You really taught me a lot. And you listened to me, and you honored my requests… I'm just _happy_, you know? And if it weren't for you, I wouldn't even know I had a skill in doubles!"

The words struck close to home. Akane bit her lip when she heard the last sentence.

"You know, Akane-buchou, if we're talking about broadening our horizons, maybe you could try singles. I think you might be able to do a good job, actually!"

Again, her words felt like mini-bullets to her chest. It was like she had guns pointed at her—she knew the bullets were coming, she knew the pain would come eventually, she just didn't know _when_."Hey, Kimiko…" she murmured. "I—I'm sorry. For everything."

"Hmm?" Kimiko opened her lavender eyes wide. "You don't have to apologize for anything! Really!" She hugged Akane tightly. Akane only forced a smile in response. Being Kimiko, she could never hold a grudge or stay mad for long.

However, being Kimiko, she didn't even know what Akane was apologizing for.

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To say they crushed Mizunohuchi High would be an understatement. Mizunohuchi was flattened, rolled up, and tossed aside in a series of 6-0 games. Even the two makeshift pairs, Marui-Komboi and Ito-Ryuzaki won at 6-0. Suzume's tennis scared the singles 3 player so much that she forfeited after a score of 2-0. The whole team was in high spirits as they walked towards the bus. The finals would begin the next morning.

"Ah! Fudomine!" Horio exclaimed, pointing. Ahead, a group of guys and girls dressed in black stopped to stare at the Seigaku regulars.

"Hi!" Ann waved cheerfully as they neared.

The guys greeted each other in the normal fashion:

"Good job passing through the preliminaries, Tachibana."

"Same goes for you."

"Yo, Mamushi, are you playing in Singles 3 again? I want a rematch."

"Urusei!"

"Echizen, we should play each other again. I see you're acting like you don't care. You never care about who your opponent is. Maybe acting coolly is some sort of psychological trick? Clever. As expected of you. I think…"

"Mada mada da ne."

The girls just looked each other up and down, as they've never set eyes on each other before. It was an awkward moment while they all stared at each other.

"Suzume, you haven't changed." A girl with silver white hair stepped forward, her hand reaching for the second year.

"That must be 'Saki-senpai'." Sayaka whispered to her brother.

"I didn't know there were girls out there that had longer hair than Izumi-senpai!" Momoshiro whispered back. This 'Saki-senpai' had two long white pigtails that reached below her knees.

Suzume forced herself to look directly into the girl's eyes. She never liked this feeling. Sakiko had red eyes, as in red, _blood_ red. However when she brought her eyes to Sakiko's, she realized that they were black—she'd put in tinted contacts. "And you've changed too much. I'm sorry, I don't know you."

"It's me. Sakiko. Suzume—"

"The Sakiko I knew is dead. I don't know who you are anymore." She looked away.

"Look, if you _knew_ what I've been through—" She bit off, shaking her head. "You would've made the same decisions! Don't act like you're so disappointed in me when you have no idea what's happened!"

"You tell me not to act disappointed," Suzume's voice was low, dangerous. "You were the one that encouraged me to rebel! _You_ told me that I didn't deserve the crap that others gobbled up. How can you expect me not to be disappointed when the _only_ person I've ever followed… has given in to the very things she taught me to reject?" She clenched her hands into fists. "How can you ask me to not be disappointed?"

The silver white hair that was once free was now reined in into two pigtails, tied high with black ribbons. Her eyes were hidden, covered up with those contacts—they must be _fake_ contacts, because Sakiko had perfect vision. Even through the jersey Suzume could see a necklace emblazoned with a cross, along with rings and a bracelet displaying the same symbol. '_Like a dog.'_ she thought bitterly, thinking of how much the necklace resembled a collar.

Sakiko opened her mouth, but decided not to say anything. Instead, she took out a rosary, closed her eyes, and began murmuring something very softly. It took some of them a moment to realize she was praying.

"Eto…" Ann smiled, trying to break the awkward atmosphere. "Umm, I'll introduce you guys!" She went through the girls quickly. Akane did the same with her team. Both sides bowed. "Nice to meet you!"

"We'll be leaving then," Tezuka said. "Let's have a good game tomorrow!"

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_Next morning_….

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"Oi Kimura, is that friend of yours an albino or something?" Momoshiro asked, looking awed and slightly scared. They had just arrived and were waiting for Ryoma and Oishi. Fudomine had also arrived. Sakiko didn't wear her tinted contacts today, so her crimson eyes were shown in their original pigment. Suzume vaguely wondered if it was to scare off her opponents.

"No. They thought she was though," Suzume said. "Her father has red eyes too, but her white hair is from her mothers' side. Put those two together, and it's easy to mistake her for an albino. The church thought she was one too," She pulled out a cigarette and spun it around in her fingers. "But I always liked her eyes…"

"We've got a super new combination worked out!" Kimiko was telling Kikumaru. "Aiko's really fun to work with!" then she leaned in and whispered, "But she has no idea what I'm saying half the time," She grimaced. "English is my worst subject."

"Heh, it's because Kimi-chan you talk too fast!" He looked at her, only to see her looking at him with wide, watery eyes. "What's wrong, nya?"

"WAAAH!" Kimiko suddenly jumped him, tears flowing out like fountains (anime style). "Senpai called me "Kimi-chan"! I'm so happy!"

"Kimi-chan…" Chiharu yawned. "You're awfully energetic this early in the morning," She leaned against Akane's shoulder.

Akane patted the girl on the head. "I think those pills were a little strong, Chiharu…"

"Morning…" Ryoma joined them, yawning openly.

"Did you help another pregnant lady or something?" Momoshiro asked sarcastically.

Oishi followed soon after. Now that everyone was here, Coach Ryuzaki was ready to announce the roster against Fudomine. "Singles 1, Tezuka. Singles 2, Kawamura. Singles 3, Momoshiro. Doubles 2, Inui-Kaidoh. Doubles 1, Oishi, Kikumaru."

Ryoma stalked off to find a vending machine immediately.

Momoshiro giggled. "He's pissed. He wanted a good match."

Akane recited the girls' roster from memory. "Singles 1, Izumi. Singles 2, Chiharu. Singles 3, Suzume. Doubles 2, Sakuno-Sayaka. Doubles 1, Aiko-Kimiko." She smiled at Reina. "We'll be sitting this one out, okay?"

"Wait…" Izumi said. "Why am I in singles 1? Why isn't Chiharu-san in singles 1?" '_I can't be singles 1, there must be a mistake…_'

Inui stepped forward, notebook open. "My data predicts that Matsuyama will be appearing in singles 2. We're putting Oshiro-san there in order to combat her style."

"Chiharu-san plays better than me, shouldn't you—"

"We're not talking strengths here, Izumi," Akane said. "We're talking styles. Play styles."

"But, if there's an even stronger player in singles 1, or if your predictions are wrong and Matsuyama appears in singles 1, then Chiharu, or maybe _you_, Akane—"

"Izumi," Akane pulled her to face her. "You're making excuses because you think you're going to lose. Because you won't push yourself beyond that limit that has you restricted."

Izumi felt herself drowning under those cerulean eyes. Why did all the people she knew have such powerful eyes? How did Akane read her so easily? Izumi never pushed herself over a certain point. She'd always give up. She knew she did, but she didn't know why.

"If you don't want to push yourself in this match…" Akane said. "Then you can't let your opponent take the lead. It's simple, Izumi. Don't let yourself lose."

"That's all," Coach Ryuzaki said. "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Sayaka said, grinning. "What are we waiting for? Let's kick ass!"

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_Later…_

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The morning matches went by in a blur of action.

"Seigaku!"

"Fight-O!"

"I can't believe Kaidoh-senpai and Inui-senpai lost…"

"Kaidoh isn't Taka-san, why did he try to return Ishida's Hadokyuu? He could've injured himself severely!"

"As expected of the Golden Pair! Perfect combination!"

"Of course they had to win! Kikumaru-senpai and Oishi-senpai are unbeatable!"

"Hey, Tachibana's little sister! If I win, go on a date with me, okay?"

"THERE'S NO WAY I'M LETTING YOU WIN, MOMOSHIRO!"

"Kamio, calm down! He's beating you psychologically!"

"Oi, Namazu-chan. Do I really look like that Kamio loser?"

"No Kimura, you don't look alike at all. My brother just has no imagination for nicknames. 'Kamio-wannabe', _honestly_…"

"HA! Guess I have a date with Tachibana's little sister then!

"SHUT UP!"

"This is troublesome. I wanted to play Echizen again. I wanted to crush him so he wouldn't go around with that arrogant attitude. And maybe I could win that grip tape from him too. Why isn't Echizen playing anyways? Did you plan to trick me because I expected to be matched against Echizen? Maybe—"

"BURNING! I will be a better opponent than Echizen, BABY! Ore, ore, COME ON!"

"Ah! Hadokyuu!"

"Ibu can't use 'spot' because Kawamura's shots are too powerful."

"Looks like we won't get to play each other here, Tezuka."

"See you in the prefectural tournament."

After an exciting array of matches, Seigaku boys took the District Championships at a score of 3 wins and 1 loss. Both teams immediately set off for the female tournaments that were held during the afternoon in different courts. At that moment, the girls were still warming up, tingly feelings all over them from being forced to sit still during the matches in the morning.

Finally, they finished the basic warm-ups and stretches that were needed to avoid cramps and pulled muscles, and put their rackets back into their bags. They slung their racket bags over their shoulders a bit too enthusiastically—some of them ended up muttering "ow" under their breaths when the racket bag hit their backs, but they could hardly contain their excitement. It was the finals!

As they walked to the designated courts, they saw many different school uniforms. Some of them vaguely familiar, others were completely new and unknown. However, it didn't matter how big the school was, or how many students it had, or how much the tuition cost—the girls could see a challenge within every eye of every tennis player, within every color of dyed fabric that was a school jersey.

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A/N: I am not against Christians or any religious beliefs. The views on religion in the story are conducted from the point of view of several characters, and do not represent my views.

Next chapter up (PROBABLY) within two days.

Review. Review. Review.


	14. Fudomine

**Disclaimer: I worship Konomi and his characters, but I don't own them. I own the OCs within the story.**

Enjoy the chapter~

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Fourteen: Fudomine**

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"Ano…" Sakuno shyly walked up to Sayaka, who was, strangely, her doubles pair. She was surprised, since she _thought_ she did pretty well as Akane's partner yesterday… And she'd never tried playing with Sayaka before. They'd taken a small break during the matches in the morning in order to practice a little and work out a few simple combinations. Sayaka was much harder to complement than Aiko or Akane, actually, since her movements were harder to read.

"It's fine!" Sayaka reassured her as they picked up their rackets. "Just play like we did this morning. We can't let those guys take all the trophies now, can we?"

Sakuno nodded vigorously. "Hai!" There was one thing about Sayaka that she really liked—she felt that Sayaka depended on her more. Playing with Sayaka was just more… _fun._ It was probably due to her cheerful and rowdy personality. Playing with Aiko was a bit cold, because of a language barrier and Aiko's dislike for doubles, and Akane also brought her blunt attitude onto court. '_We'll win this match together!_'

"One set match! Momoshiro to serve!"

"This is a strange doubles pairing…" Inui murmured as the match began. "Why did Ryuzaki-sensei choose this pair to put as doubles two, anyways?"

"I asked her to," Akane said simply.

Ryoma wandered back, tossing his Ponta perfectly into the trashcan ahead. "Echizen!" Momoshiro called, grinning. "I knew you'd come back for Ryuzaki's match!"

"What's the score?"

"They just lost the first game, but that's okay!" Momoshiro said. "Sayaka hasn't started playing yet."

"Hey, Ryuzaki-chan?" Sayaka said as she retreated to the baseline. "Remember those exercises that Inui-senpai had us do? The one where we each guarded our own boxes?"

"Hmm?" Sakuno nodded, while still keeping an eye on their opponents. The girl tossed the ball up.

Sayaka pointed towards Ryoma, and Sakuno suddenly knew that she wanted them to pull off a double approach maneuver. The girl served, and Sakuno hit it back. Both of them began running for the net.

"My limbs itch from not moving properly!" Sayaka proclaimed, and suddenly she broke into a series of cartwheels and flips. The two opponents stared at her movements—they'd never seen anything like that before. The way she effortlessly caught her racket after tossing it, twisting and turning… The whole crowd's attention was captivated. It was as if there was some invisible spotlight on her. Sayaka landed with a smile, hi-fiving her partner. "Nice shot, Ryuzaki-chan."

"Hey, where's the ball?" their opponents looked around, only to find the ball near the baseline. Sayaka had let Sakuno take the shot, while leading the opponent's attention away. "Hey! That's dirty!"

"You can't call that dirty!" Ann said from the sidelines. "You have to give the game your full attention if you want to win!"

"You girls are doing great!" Coach Ryuzaki said during a break, as they took sips of water.

"Nothing like playing with Ryuzaki-chan!" Sayaka said. "It's like playing with a brick wall behind you. You know it's okay to miss the ball—there'll always be someone there to catch it." She winked at Sakuno. The brown haired girl blushed at her praise.

"They're like you, they haven't been playing together very long," Tachibana said to his teammates. "I'm sure you can find an opening."

Sakuno readied herself to serve. Sayaka grinned and held up a two behind her back. '_Okay…_' Sakuno narrowed her brown eyes in concentration, jumped, and hit the ball.

"Since when did _they_ learn sign play?" Momoshiro asked.

"When you were getting beaten up by Kamio," Akane said.

"Hey, I _won_ him, alright?"

Sayaka did a cartwheel and pulled it into a double flip as she pushed herself off the ground. The Fudomine pair aimed for her left—it was left open. However, Sayaka's long reach and long legs easily allowed her to throw up her racket and do two front flips to reach the ball. When she did, did a somersault and slowly scraped her racket across the ball in a drop shot.

One of her opponents predicted it and managed to run forward, volleying it back. At that moment, Sakuno saw her chance. She leapt upwards and smashed the ball down, winning the point.

"Timing was slightly off…" Tezuka commented. "But it made the ball faster."

"Eh?" Horio turned his head to Inui. "How does that work?"

"Normally you hit the ball when it's at its highest point," he explained. "But Ryuzaki jumped a little late, so she hit the ball as it was descending. She added power to the momentum the ball was gaining due to gravity."

"SUGOI SAKUNO!" Tomoka yelled.

"The amazing thing is…" Akane said with a smile. "She doesn't even know that she's doing it."

The Fudomine pair tried to pull themselves together as the game went on, and managed to take another game. As long as they stopped concentrating on Sayaka so much, it seemed okay. Besides, their combination wasn't _that_ good, it just seemed that way because Sayaka moved around so much.

"Wait! Where's the girl with braids?" One of the girls asked as her racket connected with the ball. All she could see was Sayaka, who was standing in the middle. "Maybe it's the Australian Formation, and we can't see the other girl because she's too short!"

"Hit it straight down the middle then!" her partner told her. "That way they'll go left and right, and won't be able to get it!"

The ball came straight towards her. Sayaka smiled. Suddenly she leapt upwards, doing a toe-touch, while Sakuno slid out from beneath her and hit the ball in a drive volley, winning the point. Just for kicks, Sayaka pulled her toe-touch into a backwards flip, and landed into a victory pose. She hugged Sakuno. "I loved that move! We should give it a name!"

"Oi… that almost looked like your Drive B, Echizen!" Momoshiro exclaimed.

"Sayaka used her body to hide the direction Ryuzaki was coming from… " Inui said as he wrote it down. "It works when you _know _a shot is going to come down the middle."

"Not bad, Ryuzaki." Ryoma murmured.

"Namazu-chan is pretty cut out for doubles too…" Suzume muttered.

The Fudomine pair was just about done. "They're really good." one said as they misread Sayaka's movements and ran in the complete opposite directions. It was just too easy to be dazzled by her movements. How did she manage to predict where the shot would land so she could throw her racket and catch it at that very spot?

"Yeah," the other agreed. "Even though they've just started playing doubles, it seems like they've been playing for years already."

"Game and Match! Momoshiro-Ryuzaki pair, 6 games to 2!"

"Hey you!" Sayaka said to Sakuno as they went to accept the congratulations of their friends. "We're playing doubles from now on, right?"

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(A/N: If sexual references offend you, please skip over this section.)

"We need to come up with a name for that move, right?" Kachiro said. "It was really cool!"

"It should have the word 'drive' in it, since it was a drive volley…" Katsuo murmured.

"RS Drive!" Momoshiro said. "For Ryuzaki and Sayaka!"

"That's lame." Akane said bluntly. "Besides, you used a first name and a last name; it doesn't make sense…"

"It'd be the same as saying Sakuno and Momoshiro drive," Reina said. "S and M Drive."

There was silence.

"No, it's not the same at all…"

"Okay, I just found out Reina-senpai is a pervert," Suzume said with a roll of her eye. Reina just gave her a nonchalant look.

"YOU'RE A PERVERT FOR KNOWING IT!" Momoshiro yelled.

"And you're not?" Suzume rolled her eye again. "_Everyone_ knows it already."

"Ano…" Chiharu interrupted. "Sorry, but what is S and M?"

All of them clasped their hands to their foreheads.

"Dammit, Chiharu-senpai is just too innocent!" Sayaka said. "It makes you feel kinda bad."

"Saa… I'm sure you could ask Tezuka about it," Fuji said, smile ever present.

"Don't. Do. It," Suzume said through her teeth, glaring at Fuji. He just smiled back innocently.

"S and M?" Sakuno looked at Sayaka confusedly, completely clueless.

"OI! Echizen! Why don't you come over here and explain to Ryuzaki-chan what S and M is?" Momoshiro called, a mischievous grin in place. Ryoma spat out his mouthful of Ponta. Momoshiro laughed, trying to imagine the images in the youth's head. Come to think of it, wasn't Echizen a little young to know these things?

(Ryoma has a perverted dad. Of course he knows.)

"Let's just call it… Drive S," Akane said in attempt to steer the conversation back to a healthier topic. "S for both your first names, Sayaka and Sakuno." She turned to the girl with glasses. "Reina, we are going to have a _long_ talk about what is appropriate."

"I thought Akane liked 'concise' and 'brief'," Reina said.

Akane really wanted to punch the girl sometimes.

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"Let's go, Aiko-senpai!" Kimiko said as they pulled their rackets out of their bags and stepped onto the courts.

Aiko retied her ponytail so that it was tighter and made sure the beads were in place. "Okay. Let's do this."

Sakuno watched, still breathless from her match. Doubles was so much fun! The taste of victory was so sweet. A can of Ponta came into view. She turned around.

"Wanna drink?" Ryoma asked.

"Ah! Thank you!" She opened the can and took a grateful drink, enjoying the fizzy feeling on her tongue. After she'd taken a sip, she asked, "Did I do okay, Ryoma-kun?"

"Mada mada da ne."

She made a face. "Ryoma-kun always says that. Fine, which part is "mada mada da ne?"

"Come over after practice next week and I'll show you." He drank some more from his can of Ponta.

She blushed. "Okay."

"Akane-san, I'm surprised you agreed to change partners so quickly…" Oishi said.

Akane just watched the pair as they moved into their positions on court, her expression unreadable. "I knew this would happen one day…"

"Eh?"

"Nothing…" Akane continued watching as the game got underway. Being Kimiko's double partner, she knew that Kimiko had great analytical skills but tended to have a small reach and little stamina. '_If we want this pair to work, then Aiko has to be the game-maker. She has to create openings so Kimiko can break the game._'

Kimiko allowed her lavender eyes to settle on her two opponents. They had the first serve. "Ne, Aiko-senpai—let's go just as we practiced, okay?" she said over her shoulder. Like Sakuno and Sayaka, they had also taken some time yesterday and this morning to work out their combinations. "We can't let that pair have the spotlight all to themselves!"

The serve came. Aiko caught it easily, returning it to the baseline. Kimiko's eyes shifted to the ball. '_Topspin, huh…_' She took two steps away from the ball, allowing Aiko to hit it again as it came back.

"Why is that pink-haired girl running _away _from the ball?" one of their opponents asked the other.

Aiko hit a drop shot. Their opponents ran forward to catch it. Kimiko grinned. "Thanks, Aiko-senpai!" She carefully controlled her drop volley. It hit the metal pole at the end of the net with a resounding _clang_ before flying upwards and landed just beyond the service line.

"Techuu Ate (_Metal Bell Hit_)," she said. '_Genius, right, Bunta?_'

"15-0!"

"I see…" Inui said. "Komboi lead the opponents towards the net, where Marui's techniques would be at their strongest."

Aiko received the high five that her partner gave her, but she didn't smile. No matter what, she was still a singles oriented person at heart. '_I said okay to doubles with her… because she's stronger than that Ryuzaki girl.'_ But still, she didn't like the feeling of relying on someone else.

"Neh, Aiko-senpai!" Kimiko put one finger behind her back, indicating the combination. "Let's show them what we can do!"

"Oi! Oishi!" Kikumaru said, tugging at the jersey of his friend. "That's the…"

Oishi looked dumbstruck. "Australian Formation…"

Akane put her hands against the green wire fence. "They can't pull that off! You have to rely on your partner completely to use that formation!"

They awaited the ball to come back before suddenly moving. However, Kimiko and Aiko somehow ended up going the _same_ direction, leaving the left court open. Their opponents saw this and aimed the ball down the empty area.

"Aww, that was a bad combination on their part!" Kachiro said.

Suddenly, Aiko appeared out of nowhere to slam her racket against the ball, pinning to the right alley of their opponents.

Ryoma smiled. "Not bad…"

Akane let her hands drop to her sides. "She feinted…"

Inui nodded. "It was an excellent move. Allowing them to think that they made a mistake in the combination…"

"…instead coming back to score a point into the empty court…" Oishi finished.

Tezuka focused his eyes on the opposing pair. "The other team is just getting started though…"

Even though Aiko and Kimiko managed to take the first game two points later, the other team was obviously more skilled. Kimiko, being short and having limited range, missed several shots that were to the very edge of the net. As time rolled on and her stamina was being drained away, she tried to hit two cord balls, but they hit the net and fell to the ground, not powerful enough to go over the net.

'_We won't fall for the same trick twice_!' The Fudomine pair easily found openings in their combination—it could hardly be called a combination now that they were falling apart. They tried the "Australian Formation feint" again, but the Fudomine pair hit the ball right behind Kimiko, knowing that Aiko was going to feint. Soon enough, the pair was three games down.

"Game, Fudomine! 4 games to 1!"

Aiko became frustrated and ran up to the net, planning on intercepting all the shots.

"Oi, Aiko-senpai!" Kimiko shouted. "Defense, defense!"

"We're three games down!" Aiko retorted as she hit a backhand. "How am I supposed to sit back and watch us lose?"

Suddenly the other team lobbed the ball upwards in order to get it over their heads. Aiko jumped for it, but since she positioned herself at the net, she didn't give herself enough running space to power up. Her jump wasn't high enough to reach the ball.

"Game, Fudomine! 5 games to 1!"

Kimiko turned to her partner, almost angrily. "Aiko-senpai, you have to _trust_ me! This isn't singles!"

Kikumaru turned to Oishi, a nostalgic smile on his face. "Oishi, do you remember having this argument?"

"Ah," Oishi nodded. "It's when we first started playing doubles. Kikumaru—you wouldn't trust me at all."

"Hee hee!" Kikumaru clung to the green wire fence, thinking back. "I remember thinking that I could return any ball. Oishi, you were really patient with me back then. I remember you telling me where to stand and which areas to run to—then where to duck and feint. It worked out okay, didn't it?"

"Yeah…" Oishi smiled. "All doubles pairs have to have that argument…"

Aiko leapt for the ball. Her racket collided with Kimiko's. The ball dropped right in front of them.

"Ah!" Katsuo cried. "It's match point!"

Kimiko turned to Aiko, panting hard. "Why did you choose to play doubles with me?" Her eyes were narrowed. "I want the truth."

Aiko looked downwards to look the girl in the eye. She didn't lie, because she suspected the short girl already guessed the reason. "Because… you're stronger than that other girl. I need to _prove_ to everyone that I'm good enough to play singles."

Kimiko shook her head. "That's not how it works, senpai. Don't think that doubles is a soft option compared to singles. It's even more difficult—and maybe even more important. Eto…" She paused. "Umm… I remember reading a quote that your American Michael Jordan said—" Here she drew in a deep breath and tried to enunciate her English words clearly: "Talent wins games but teamwork wins championships."

The dark-skinned girl listened.

"Senpai, they chose you to play doubles because they think you've got _enough_ skill for it!" Kimiko said. "Not because they think you aren't good enough to play singles!"

Aiko brushed her braids off her shoulder, the beads clacking. Kimiko looked into her eyes and saw fire burning. "Let's go then, Kimiko," she said as she turned back, retreating to the baseline. "The game's just beginning."

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Akane looked up. Kimiko and Aiko looked more determined now. "It's going to be hard to make a comeback now… It's match point."

"But we've done it hundreds of times!" Kikumaru said, grinning. "Right, Oishi?"

"Hey, Aiko-senpai…" Kimiko said as the serve came their way. "I want a backspin."

Aiko returned the serve and tried to put a strong counter-spin on it. "Here you go!"

Kimiko kept her lavender eyes on the ball as it came back their way. She ran backwards a little. Aiko moved to the left to completely cover the court. "Here goes!" Kimiko swung her racket in a forehand slice.

Reina sharpened her gaze.

She saw the movement in four frames. The swinging of the racket in a smaller arc, the slice that only just scratched the ball… It was all in those detailed drawings, and those drawings had come to life.

The ball hit the net, the spin strong enough to make it brush the net loudly. Suddenly, it rolled upwards, shocking everyone. It teetered for a brief moment before falling on the opposing court.

"40-15!"

"Marui actually hit it again!"

"Whoa… how is that possible!"

"It just went up the net by itself!

"Nice job, Reina…" Akane said. "You actually recreated it for her."

Reina felt so proud, so immensely triumphant, even though it wasn't her performing the move. This is the sort of satisfaction she always looked forward to. The hours of analyzing didn't matter. The hours of drawing didn't matter. As long as she could see the fruits of her labor—see the results her teammates got from her help, all was worth it. These moments were one of the few that could make her smile.

"Uphill…" Inui murmured, trying to come up with a name. "It defies gravity…"

Reina shifted her eyes to look at him.

"Chouseki." they said at the same time. "The tides…"

"The…"

"…tides?" the rest of the team repeated.

"I see…" Fuji chuckled. "Tides of the sea can run uphill… and it's due to the moon's gravity affecting them."

"Chouseki…" Kaidoh said to himself. "Doesn't sound half bad."

"Chouseki!" Kimiko repeated happily. "I like it! Don't you, Aiko-senpai?"

"I would if I had any idea what it meant."

"Eto… um… the water from the sea against the shore?" Kimiko struggled with her English. "Like… going up the shore?"

"Ah, the tides. I see."

A few intense minutes later, they had won another game and were well on their way to winning a third. Aiko was beginning to learn how to depend on her. Kimiko too, began to learn to adapt towards Aiko's aggressive style. She hit her famous drop shots, forcing the opponent to lob the ball at the net, allowing Aiko to jump and smash the ball.

But their opponents weren't down yet. They aimed their shots at the baseline, forcing Aiko to retreat. Kimiko tried to intercept them to give her partner enough time to come closer to the net, but the shots went deep and she couldn't control her net play. Putting a signal behind her back, she and Aiko switched places.

"The rear guard at the net?" Momoshiro exclaimed.

"Aiko has a longer reach…" Chiharu said. "It's to give the game a slight change of pace."

"But when Aiko's at the net…" Akane murmured, seeing the scene take place _again._ She resisted the urge to bang her head against the fence. "She tends to forget Kimiko's existence…"

Kimiko was running back and forth at the rear uselessly.

"…and become a solo player."

Aiko volleyed all the balls back, not allowing them to bounce. '_I _can_ handle this._' Suddenly a ball was hit to Aiko's far right. "Damn!" She leapt forward in a diving volley, but wasn't able to reach it, crashing on the clay of the courts. A flash of pink darted by her eye. "What…?"

Kimiko sprinted for the ball, diving forward. "I told you before…" Her racket tapped the ball, dropping just over the net. "You can trust me!"

"OI! KIMIKO, WATCH OUT!"

Kimiko faced forward in time to see that she was about to crash into the metal pole at the end of the net. She was moving too fast. There was no way she could stop. Time seemed to slow as the pole came closer. In that one moment, she realized…

'_I can save either my arm… or my head…_'

For a millisecond, her eyes rested on her arm. She could block the blow with it if she wished. Lavenders eyes traveled down the length of her arm and to her tennis racket, which was basically an extension of the flesh and bone. '_I need it to hold my tennis racket…_'

She anchored her arms by her side and let her head take the full blow.

She saw red.

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She opened her eyes, a warm liquid running down the side of her head. The salty, metallic taste in her mouth made her want to throw up.

Akane was by her side, lifting her up. "We need to get you to a hospital…"

"I'm fine!" she said, only to clasp a hand over her mouth and wince in pain. There was a gash on her face, splitting the corner of her lip. Another one was just to the side of her forehead, blood dripping steadily down.

"You can't play with these injuries." Akane said.

"YOU DON'T PLAY TENNIS… WITH YOUR MOUTH!" she yelled. The pause between words was there because the sentence became too painful halfway through. Even panting, _breathing_ was painful with the gash cutting her mouth. She swiped a hand across her mouth, staining her fingers red. The blood flowed out again just as she moved her fingers away, making her look like some sort of demented vampire.

Aiko put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. We did our best."

"Marui-san, you must get your injuries treated!" Oishi said. "You could get an infection!"

"NO! I'm not done with the game yet! I'm not done—hey!" Suddenly Kaidoh walked up and tossed her over his shoulder like a child. "Put me down!"

"Where's the hospital?" he growled.

"Ano… If you turn left over there, there are signs telling you which way… But Kaidoh, isn't that a little…" Kaidoh already walked away, with her still whining. "…unnecessary?"

"I'll go too!" Aiko jogged after them.

"Seigaku forfeits! Game and Match to Fudomine!"

The girls exchanged a look. "We were lucky…"

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Suzume was walking back to the courts from her warming up session with the wall. She had seen everything. As she passed Kaidoh carrying Kimiko (who was still protesting), she turned her head. "You'd think that cut to the mouth would shut her up a little."

Kimiko glared silently. It wasn't worth the pain to argue with her.

"You should stop the bleeding first." '_Stupid people back at the courts that forgot to give her basic first aid._' Suzume reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of Band-Aids. Large sized. Quickly and easily, she patched up the cuts and wiped away the excess blood with her hands roughly. Kimiko winced and Suzume told her to suck it up. When Kaidoh looked at her in surprise, as if wondering where she learned first aid, she said, "What? I get hurt a lot."

"Oi, Kimura…" Kaidoh said in a threatening manner. "When we get back, it better be a win."

His way of wishing her good luck made Kimiko giggle. She flinched. Even giggling was painful.

Suzume let her eye rest on the blood on her hands. "I'll definitely win the next one."

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"Ann," Tachibana turned his head from the bench. "It's your turn."

"Hai, onii-chan!" She entered the court. "I'll bring the flow back to our side!"

"Play like you always do," Tachibana told her with a fond smile. "I don't have any special advice for you."

"I do…" Sakiko said, and Ann looked up. "Don't go to the net. If you're at the net, there's no telling what this girl will do." '_This girl molded herself after Akutsu…_'

"Hey, Kimura!" Sayaka said as Suzume passed by her. "Be careful. That girl has good eyes."

"Yeah…" Momoshiro said, remembering the time when Ann played him and found an opening to his left.

"All the better then," Suzume replied with a smirk. "Come to think if it, if you had better eyes Namazu-chan, I probably could've induced more fear."

"…that sounded like an insult."

"It was."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Let's have a good game, Kimura-san."

"Same, Tachibana's little sister."

She pouted. "I do have name, you kn—"

"Yeah, and I don't like it."

Suzume retreated to the baseline, leaving Ann dumbstruck for a second. Momoshiro laughed. "That's how she says hi."

Ann threw the ball up and served a surprisingly powerful serve for a girl as small as she was. Tachibana smiled.

"It's slow!" Suzume taunted as she returned a cross shot across the court. Suddenly Ann caught up to it and swung her forehand wide, slamming the ball into the empty court. Suzume didn't even react.

"15-0!"

'_Oh yeah, her forehand is pretty formidable._' Momoshiro briefly remembered how the girl scored several points against him with that forehand.

"This might actually be fun…" Suzume murmured, lowering her torso in anticipation of Ann's next serve. When Ann served again, she returned with a straight shot instead. This time her opponent swung a two-handed backhand. The shot went a little high.

"Yup, she tends to lob on her backhand." Momoshiro said with a nod.

Suzume jumped for it and smashed the ball. It flew right by Ann's cheek, streaking through her hair. For an instant, she froze.

"It's starting…" Inui said. "Suzume's tennis."

"Chiharu, you better keep an eye on her." Akane said.

"Ann, are you okay?" Tachibana asked.

"A-ah…" She swung her racket a few times, heart pounding loudly. '_Only 2 points into the game and she already figured out that I have a weak backhand…_' Throwing the ball up, she served again. '_I can't keep protecting my weak points—I have to find hers!_' Another rally began.

Suzume smirked, hitting a drop shot. Ann ran forward to catch it. '_I've got you!_' Suzume thought.

"I _told_ her not to go to the net!" Sakiko stood up.

Suzume twirled her racket in her hand as Ann tapped the ball with her racket, barely reaching it.

"Oi! That's a reverse grip!" Momoshiro exclaimed, watching as Suzume changed her grip in that instant.

In a flash, Suzume punched forward as if she was fighting Ann in hand-to-hand combat. Ann yelped and ducked backwards, falling onto the ground. The ball shot though the air, coming in close contact with her cheek, just like last time. As she fell backwards, the ball smashed against her hairclip. It fell to the ground with a click.

"Suzume-chan's pretty serious…" Chiharu said.

"I know she's a black belt in karate, but man…"

"She only does that when she can get her opponent to the net," Akane said. "She's not like Izumi or Sayaka—she doesn't really incorporate a secondary sport into her tennis."

"Strictly speaking, that wouldn't even have been a correct punch." Suzume called, overhearing the conversation. "You wanna see one, Momoshiro? C'mere and I'll show you."

'_Did she aim for that_?' Ann walked over to pick up her hairclip. It fell into two; snapped in the middle. Her hand began shaking.

"Hey! Kimura!" Sayaka yelled, rattling the fence with her hands. "Why didn't you play like that when you were against me?" '_She didn't use her full strength against me then? What does she take me for?_'

"Because, _idiot_ Namazu-chan," Suzume replied. "Whenever you were at the net, you were always about 500 feet above ground. There's no way I could punch anywhere close enough to get a reaction."

'_So she_ did_ aim for it_…' Ann thought. '_Sort of…_'

"She's got this one. It's over." Akane got up. "Oishi, do you want to take a walk?"

"Eh? But the game—"

"I want to talk with you." she explained. The way she said it made the matter seem important.

"Ah… okay…" The lightest of blushes appeared on his cheeks as he followed her to the fountain that was in the middle of the tennis garden. Water cascaded down ornately carved marble, creating a beautiful image. They sat down on the edge. Oishi could see several couples hand-in-hand, walking around them, and the silence suddenly became a lot more awkward. "Ano… so what did you want to talk about?"

She laughed. "Don't get your hopes up, Oishi. It's nothing like that."

His blush grew. "I… I wasn't thinking—"

"I get it…" She smiled for a brief moment, then let her face become more solemn. She exhaled. "Do you remember how a few days ago, we noticed how much Sakuno improved in doubles?"

"Ah… yeah…"

"Like you said, she has a natural feel for it…" Akane looked straight ahead. "But I felt that her improvement was almost _unnatural_, you know?" She closed her eyes. "I found out some things. It's my fault she's so good at doubles now."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Oishi said with a smile. Then he frowned. "Wait. You said 'my_ fault_'… why—"

"You know, Oishi…" Her smile was bitter. "Sometimes you realize you have this sort of power over other people, and you just don't use it properly. I've realized that I can be extremely manipulative…"

"_Manipulative_?"

"See, I _told_ Sakuno that she appeared to have a talent for doubles. And then, Coach Ryuzaki told me," She trailed her finger in the cool water of the fountain. "That Sakuno started _studying_ doubles. She bought books that analyzed all the formations and she _memorized_ them. She neglected her schoolwork for tennis."

Oishi thought that's why she felt bad. "But, if she _wanted_ to, then—"

"Oishi…" Akane turned her eyes up to his and he was shocked to see unspeakable anguish within those eyes. "Right after I told her she might make a good doubles player, I completely _crushed_ her in singles. And in doing so… I crushed all her hopes in becoming a singles player." She rubbed her temples. "Ryuzaki-sensei told me that Sakuno had never shown any interest in doubles until after that match with me."

"Akane-san… I mean, if you're manipulative and it's unintentional…"

This time, she had to force herself to look into his eyes. "I'd be lying if I said it was completely unintentional."

He didn't know what to say to that.

She stared into her own turquoise eyes as she looked at the water. "You know, I'm not really a doubles player… I just _trained_ myself to play doubles… It's not fair to Kimiko. She's such a good doubles player that I _used_ her, I used her to make myself seem like a doubles player. And she could tell; she could tell that we didn't fit. It's not just other people; I do the same to myself. I _use_ people when the situation demands it. And it really hurts."

Even if she was manipulative, even if she used people to get the desired results, when Oishi looked at Akane, all he could see was a team captain that really cared for the team.

"You know when they ask you to choose two things? To A, do what you want to do. Or B, do what you're good at. I always wanted there to be an option C," She smiled again. "Do what's best for the situation. And our team needed doubles players. Suzume can't play doubles at all. Izumi hates relying on other people—you have to find someone that would adapt to _her_, and not the other way around. Chiharu is the same—her style is at maximum power when she's solo. Not many people are like you—just born for doubles…"

She leaned back, looking at the blue sky. The sky was clear, a clear blue that was so much more pure than the color of her eyes.

"They have to be made."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

When they got back, Suzume had won the match 3-1. Ann forfeited. Actually, it was more like her brother made her. When Akane arrived at the scene, she saw scratches and hints of bruises all over Suzume's opponent, and she was limping badly. "Oi, Kimura. What did you do?"

"She got a little agitated," Suzume said carelessly.

"Ann's a passionate player," Momoshiro said. "She started getting a bit frustrated, which led to recklessness."

"She tried to dodge Suzume-chan's shot that was near her feet and twisted her ankle." Chiharu explained.

Akane frowned. "Ann isn't a low level player. How did that happen?" '_She shouldn't have twisted her ankle so easily…"_

"She did a carioca step," Sayaka demonstrated. "And tried to go into a one-footed split step directly after that. Like this." She crossed her legs and landed with a bounce on one of her feet. Then she wobbled a little and stopped. "Heh, guess I can't pull it off either. In theory though, it would've been a good way to dodge the ball and aim it back."

"I think it was more like this…" Izumi crossed her legs and skipped to the left, landing on one foot lightly before immediately pushing off that foot and jumping to the right. "It was to dodge the ball and get a good angle to hit it back, but at the same time she tried to give herself a split-second advantage."

"As expected of Morioka-senpai!" Momoshiro said. "Her sense of balance is better than yours, Sayaka! You'd think with all your years into gymnastics…"

"It didn't help that Kimura's next shot hit her in the chest, full on. That was a smash." Inui said.

"You hit her in the in the chest with a smash?" Both Oishi and Akane said at the same time.

"Hey, don't get worked up," Suzume replied calmly. "It was an accident. I didn't know she was going to fall."

"She already apologized…" Chiharu said quickly.

Kimiko, Aiko, and Kaidoh got back from the hospital. "Is it… did we…?"

"She won," Chiharu told them with a smile.

Kimiko shrieked with joy. Suzume covered her ears.

_Meanwhile…_

"Ann-chan, are you okay?" Kamio asked, rushing to enter the court with the rest of the Fudomine team. He looked at Suzume, who was talking with her team members. "Did she do it on purpose?"

"No, I don't think so," Ann said as her brother felt along the bones in her ankle. "She almost looked horrified when the ball hit me. I know it looked like she was aiming it for me… but somehow I don't think she was." She bowed her head. "I'm sorry, onii-chan."

"No, you did great," Tachibana said reassuringly. "You managed to take a game away from her. So far, no one in the tournament has been able to do that."

"Besides…" Kamio smiled. "Tachibana put Saki-senpai in singles 2 after hearing a report on the sparrow-girl. So there's no way we're losing the next one!"

"I wouldn't be so sure…" Tachibana said gravely. "That girl…" He inclined his head towards Chiharu. "We don't know anything about. She only got to play _once_ in the whole tournament, and that was during singles 1 in the opening match, where all five matches are played." He sighed. "Unfortunately, we also had a match that time and didn't see what happened."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Both Sakiko and Chiharu stepped onto the court, shaking hands at the net. "I'll say a prayer for you." Sakiko said. Before Chiharu could say anything, she put her hands together in a praying position and closed her eyes.

The way she said those words: "I'll say a prayer for you", she said them without a taunting tone. Nor did the words carry any faint suggestion that Chiharu would lose. Her tone wasn't sarcastic either. It was just… flat. Neutral. Chiharu was puzzled by this girl.

"She's praying again, isn't she…" Ibu said.

"Of course. She does it every time before a match."

When she was finished, Chiharu smiled at her. "You're acquainted with Suzume-chan, don't you?"

"I do, actually…" she replied. "But it definitely isn't as deep as your bond is with her."

Chiharu was a silent for a moment. "You know?"

She nodded. "Everything."

"One set match! Seigaku Oshiro to serve!"

Chiharu started off the match like she normally did—a perfectly ordinary serve followed by a seemingly perfectly ordinary rally. Saikiko also didn't show any skill besides being able to keep up with the rally. Slowly, the blue-haired girl began pinpointing her shots, causing Sakiko to retreat to the right corner. Chiharu was just making a cross shot when she noticed a flurry of movement at Sakiko's hands—but she didn't concentrate well enough. The return came out of nowhere and skidded across the left edge of the court, well beyond her reach.

'_What?_' Chiharu thought. '_How did that happen?_' Judging from the area that she was holding Sakiko at, Sakiko couldn't have hit that shot from her angle. Not unless she could dislocate her arm. Her eyes suddenly focused in on her grip and she wanted to slap herself for not noticing. At the beginning, Sakiko had been playing with her _right_ arm. Now she held the racket in her left. That flurry of movement must've indicated the change.

"That's a faster Nitouryuu than yours, Echizen," Kamio said gleefully.

"How… is she doing that?" Sayaka asked.

"The same way he did it," Momoshiro replied with a nod towards Ryoma. "The one-footed split step."

"That's not it…" Kikumaru said, his eyes large, catching every movement Sakiko used to move around the court. "She alternates with a carioca step in order to hit the ball with the sweet spot of her racket! It was what Tachibana's little sister was trying to do!"

"She can react faster, at the same time switching directions, if needed," Inui said. "Her footwork is flawless." He eyed the way her feet moved. Even if Chiharu was going to use her synesthesic ability to interpret the shots, it wouldn't do any good if she couldn't _get_ to the ball into time. '_I should make a training menu helping Oshiro to improve her speed…_'

"Ne, Inui-senpai…" Horio suddenly asked. "Why does playing with two hands give the other player an advantage?"

"Firstly, it gives the player a longer reach. _This_," He stretched both his hands out. "Is better than _this_," He stretched only his right arm out and moved it to the left. "Secondly, you have much more variation. When a shot is hit to your backhand side, you can quickly switch hands and hit a forehand if you want."

"And lastly…" Akane said. "Normally, that place on the court…" She pointed to where Sakiko was standing. "You can only hit a straight shot or a cross shot to the right. But…" They watched as Sakiko changed hands immediately. "She can hit a cross shot to the left if she needs to." Sakiko hit a forehand with her right hand, pinning the ball far from where Chiharu was standing. "You get the best angles that way, and your opponent cannot tell where you're going to hit it."

"On top of that…" Inui looked a little rattled that Akane stole his spotlight. "You retain stamina, since you use _both _your hands, rather than putting the strain on just one. You get tired less easily."

"Game, Matsuyama! 3 games to love! Change court!"

"She won three games, just like that?" Momoshiro exclaimed.

Suzume stood there, astonished. '_Th-this isn't your style!_' Her senpai's movements were too fluid, too… _simple_. Too passive. What happened to the luck she relied on? The random style? What happened to using the wind and the sun? Had she really changed so much? And what was with the ambidexterity? '_How can she play like that_?'

"Her Nitoryuu is perfect…" Ryoma said quietly, and Tezuka nodded.

Suzume glanced their way. "How is that _possible_…?"

Sakiko heard her and walked over to the fence. "Left handed people are known as the spawn of the devil," she said, directly to Ryoma and Tezuka. "Especially if they are albino."

Kikumaru frowned. "But, you'r—"

"I'm not, but I _appear_ to be. That's all that matters," She then turned to Suzume, who glared defiantly back at her through the fence. Sakiko felt her temper boil. "You want to know how I did it? This is how!" She yanked her left shirt sleeve over her shoulder, showing what appeared to be a rope-burned mark. "They _bound_ my left arm to my body! They _immobilized _it, for six months!"

Several gasps were heard from the crowd.

Sakiko looked Suzume in the eye. "Tell me if you wouldn't have made the same decisions."

Suzume's eyes were wide with shock. "Saki-senpai, I had no idea…"

"Well now you do."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Chiharu, isn't it about time you got serious?" Akane asked.

Chiharu put her water bottle down. '_I was wondering if I could win _onematch_ without relying on my abilities_,' she thought. '_I guess not._' "I will."

Horio grabbed the fence in his anxiety. "Do you think we can win this one?"

"Of course," Inui said with a nod. "Even if Matsuyama's shots are hard to interpret and there's no telling whether she'll use her left or her right…"

Sakiko served. Chiharu hit a return ace, shocking everyone. What shocked them even more was that her eyes were closed.

"…It doesn't matter with Oshiro. She doesn't interpret them with her eyes."

"It's purely how she _feels_…" Izumi said softly. "She _feels_ the presence of the ball."

Sakiko switched to her right, hitting a forehand. The moment her racket hit the ball, Chiharu had moved into receiving position. She hit a drop volley to score another point.

"And that's why Chiharu's our 'Miracle'." Akane said.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Game and Match, Seigaku's Oshiro. 6 games to 3."

Sakiko shook her hand at the net, still in disbelief at the sudden turnover. "I lost."

The rest of the players entered the court. Akane shook hands with Tachibana, as did Tezuka. The two girls from Fudomine inquired Kimiko on her injuries politely. Kikumaru grabbed Chiharu into a big hug, with Kimiko and Sayaka joining in. Sayaka felt tears running down her cheeks. "We're the champions!"

"Oi, oi, sis. Don't be so emotional," Momoshiro said.

"Easy for you to say." Sayaka wiped away her tears roughly. "We've never won a tournament before."

Sakiko looked downcast, but all the Fudomine members patted her on the back and offered words of encouragement. Tachibana put two hands on her shoulders and nodded. She smiled at them in gratitude.

"Saki-senpai…" Suzume had approached her. She looked a bit awkward. "I'm… I'm sorry about what I said before."

"I forgive you," she replied, the words sounding very formal.

"But senpai… what happened to your old style?" Suzume asked.

Sakiko looked up at the sky. "Being Christian has given me the gift of being ambidextrous. I should make most of that gift."

Suzume shook her head. "Just because you have new beliefs now doesn't mean you have to forget your old ones," She ran a hand through her hair. "What happened to your fearlessness? Your aggression? The way you hit _any_ type of ball you could, just to see if it would go over the net?"

"They're still here. With me."

"Then find them."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Nice work, Oshiro." Tezuka said with a nod.

She beamed. "Thank you!"

"Sushi! Sushi!" Kikumaru was chanting. As promised, Kawamura's father was closing the store for their after party.

Suddenly Chiharu winced and clutched her midriff.

"Oi, are you okay?" Oishi asked. "Are you not feeling well?"

"She's fine." Akane said. "Here…" She handed Chiharu two white tablets and her water bottle. Chiharu gave her a grateful smile as she took the pills.

"Are you sick?" Oishi was in mother hen mode again. "You should've have played today then! Maybe we should get you to a hospital!"

"Maybe you should just go home," Kawamura said. "I can give you a sushi coupon if you don't want to miss out."

"He's right." Tezuka said. "If you aren't feeling well…"

"Why is everyone making such a big fuss?" Sayaka asked. "It's _normal_." Several people murmured in agreement.

"How can you say that?" Oishi said, outraged. "It's not normal to be sick! What's wrong, Oshiro-san?"

"She has dysmenorrhea," Reina said. "It's the contractions of the uterine muscle as it expels the endometrial—"

"She's on her period," Akane said bluntly.

Their reactions were priceless. Oishi turned bright red. Kaidoh also blushed. Kawamura turned away in embarrassment. Inui's pencil lead broke in the middle of a sentence. Momoshiro laughed nervously. Tezuka merely closed his eyes for a brief moment.

(Chiharu, on the other hand, wanted to crawl in a hole and die.)

The only people who didn't have reactions were Fuji (who just continued smiling), Ryoma (who wasn't listening), and Kikumaru.

"Why didn't _you_ react?" Suzume asked him.

"Hee hee! I have two older sisters! And it was so obvious the pills were painkillers!"

"Then why didn't you tell us, Eiji?" Oishi asked. '_He could've saved us the embarrassment._'

"But Fuji said it would be much more interesting to see your expressions!"

All the guys glared at Fuji.

"Dysmenorrhea," Akane rubbed her temples. "That's a fancy word for saying 'cramps'. Reina, honestly, where do you learn all these words?"

"My cognizance in lexemes is augmented through a source that involves etymology; despite your eloquence, I cannot impart it." Reina said with a nod.

Akane told herself not to bang her head against the fence. '_It kills brain cells._' she reminded herself. "Chiharu, do you have any more of those painkillers? I've got a _major_ headache."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Congratulations to both the boy's team and the girl's team for being the champions!" Oishi raised his glass. "Cheers!"

"Cheers!" everyone else replied.

"This is only the preliminaries. The prefectural tournaments will be even tougher. We mustn't let our guards down."

"Mou, Tezuka. Just lighten up for _one_ night, nya."

"ACK! That was wasabi sushi! WATER, WATER! How did wasabi sushi get on MY PLATE?"

"Saa… how did regular sushi get on mine?"

"Gomen, Fuji, Momo. I seemed to have mixed up the orders."

"TAKA-SAN!"

"Stop yelling, moron. Fssssh…"

"…so, go left over here, okay? If we feint this way more than once, they'll be able to tell. I really think we actually can make a good doubles pair, ne?"

"…Yo, Ryoma, translate for me."

"…regular participant Hyotei Gakuen… 48% chance of victory…"

"Hyotei Gakuen? It is reputed that the captain is rather egomaniacal. Narcissistic, even."

"Oishi-san, do you know the answer to this problem?"

"I didn't start on the homework yet. Morioka-san, you're so hardworking."

"Oi, Chiharu-senpai. Be careful. You know what? Sit, and I'll get your cell phone for you."

"Suzume-chan, it's fine, I'll—"

"She's right, Chiharu. Tezuka might not be able to catch you this time."

"_Akane_! No, I'll get it mysel—EEK!"

_CRASH._

"Tezuka, you sure move fast for Oshiro, don't you?"

"Fuji, 10 laps next practice."

"Mada mada da ne."

"Echizen, 20 laps."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Fourteen

A/N: The random sexual reference was put in for humor purposes and as a dedication to my friend Zeta.

Thanks to all my reviewers, anonymous and signed! **THANKS FOR 350 REVIEWS**! That initiated my jackrabbit mode.


	15. Life Continues

**Disclaimer: Usual, don't own.**

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm late with the new chapter! It's quite long actually. I just CAN'T SHUT UP SOMETIMES. This was meant to be a sort of summary… but… you know me, my chapters just EVOLVE sometimes.

**THANKS FOR 400+ reviews!**

**PASSED 100,000 WORDS!**

To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Fifteen: Life Continues

_******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

_Sushi continued…_

After they had finished the food, the team just sat around talking for a while. Perhaps it was the exhilaration from just winning a tournament, but none of them were quite ready to return home. Later, Momoshiro produced a package of cards, and they cleared the tables. Fuji, Kawamura, Chiharu, Sakuno and Izumi all politely declined. Kaidoh declined as well (not so politely). Inui and Reina were also in low conversation about something 'secret' and didn't look like they would enjoy being disturbed.

"Damn, Aiko," Momoshiro said as she put down her second winning hand—four of a kind. "Either you have the best luck in the world, or you're a star at poker."

She vaguely understood him. "It's poker," she replied. "It's the same in every country."

"You know, for this kind of game…" he said as he dealt the cards out. "I'd expect Kimura to clear us all out."

Suzume just shook her hand as she looked at her cards. "Saki-senpai was the good one at gambling."

"Well, there's one thing I don't get," Momoshiro went on. "If your family owns a dojo, why do you live in an apartment? I mean, shouldn't you live near your dojo?"

Suzume looked down at her cards. Their colorful, smiling faces seemed to be mocking her. "Too many memories…" she said quietly. Suddenly she stood, handing her cards to Ryoma. "Here, have mine." She then pulled out a box of cigarettes and a lighter and went outside before anyone could react.

They watched her slide the door close. "Oi… did I say something?" Momoshiro asked.

"No…" Chiharu spoke up tentatively. She had been watching. "You didn't… It's just that Suzume's father died last year. She's a bit sensitive right now."

"Royal straight flush." Ryoma said halfheartedly, putting Suzume's winning hand onto the table.

"Momo…" Oishi began.

"Yeah, I should probably go apologize…" Momoshiro said as he put down his cards (they were junk anyways). He slid open the door. For a moment, he didn't see anyone, then he realized that she was sitting on the ground. He coughed at the smoke. She spared him a glance, inhaling on her cigarette.

"Oi…" he said as he sat down next to her. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."

She took another drag on her cigarette and blew the smoke out. "I miss him, that's all." She looked depressed.

"You wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head, gently releasing the smoke from her lips. She closed her eyes, conjuring up the memories of her father. She'd always been rebellious, but never once had he raised his voice with her. "I wish he were still here… but then he'd see me like this…"

He looked her up and down, taking in the tattoos, the multiple piercings in her ears, her nose stud… "You look pretty good to me."

She forced a smile. "Thanks, man… but this wouldn't be what he wanted…"

"Then why…?" He didn't know how to phrase his question. "Why _are_ you… like this?"

She shook her head again. "I don't know what to do."

For the first time to Momoshiro, she looked vulnerable. He'd always thought she was a strong person, one that wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed in (which was usually wrong), but now it seemed like that hardened exterior was cracking. "Well, you know…" He reached out and swiped the cigarette from her fingers. "At the rate you're going, you'll kill yourself with these cancer sticks."

The minute he stamped his foot over the cigarette, she stamped on him. Hard.

"Oi! What was that for? You let Oshiro-senpai take the cigarette from you last time!"

"Well, the last time I checked, you weren't Chiharu-senpai!" she said.

"Why are you so nice to her, anyways?"

She looked upwards for a moment, silent. It came as a slight surprise, for he'd been expecting a fiery retort. The clouds floated across the sky, casting a gentle shadow over her eye. Her words were very quiet; he almost didn't hear them. "She saved my life."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The physics homework was a bit difficult, Izumi decided. The multiple choice questions were pretty easy; it was the few problems at the very end that she kept getting stuck on. She wondered if she should approach Inui about it, but he still seemed to be in deep conversation with Reina. '_Maybe later_…' she decided, putting her pencil down. She needed a break.

Suddenly, a soft, melodious tune drifted in her ear. She closed her eyes. The notes were long and sweet; with her eyes closed she could almost see them shimmering in front of her, like molten gold. The sound had such a smooth texture, as if she could reach out and feel the silken melody within her fingers. Music, no inhibitions, no restraints, it was just pure feeling. Again, she was lost, lost within melody, within the tempo, within the unfiltered emotion…

The music stopped. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of the room. Everyone was staring at her. "What?" she asked, embarrassed. Had she subconsciously been walking towards the source of the music?

Fuji lowered the flute from his lips.

"Morioka-san…" Oishi stammered. "That… that was beautiful."

"What?" she asked, completely puzzled. "What just happened?"

"You were dancing." Chiharu said softly.

She quickly sat back down. "I'm sorry… I didn't realize."

"No… it was beautiful," Akane ran a hand through her ginger hair. "Even when you were the lead of the dance team, I've never seen you dance like that before."

She sat there, silent for a moment. "It was the music…" she said at last, looking at Fuji.

"Ne, why do you even have a flute in your tennis bag?" Kimiko asked.

"Saa…" Fuji replied, taking the flute apart. "I think I accidently left it in my bag after I took it to school for music class."

"Fuji-senpai is a tensai for everything…" Sakuno murmured to herself.

"Hey, we should probably get going," Akane said, standing up and glancing at the clock. "We still have school tomorrow after all."

They all said their goodbyes and thanked Kawamura and his father for his hospitality, before leaving. Some of them, (coughMomoshirocough) needed to cram all the homework that was due tomorrow in tonight. After all, even if you win a tournament, life just keeps moving on.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_A month later…_

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Oishi, thank you for listening to me last time," Akane said. The two had settled for hot chocolate in a nearby café. The days were cold now, although there was no sign of snow and the trees still had some of their leaves. They had coincidentally both found their way into the café on a Saturday morning. "I really appreciate it."

"No… it's fine." Oishi replied.

"There's a long break before the prefectural tournaments…" she murmured. "We can't let the team's skills get rusty…"

"I'm sure Inui's menus should help," he said. "They've worked for us before, so it should be fine."

She made light conversation with him for the next few minutes. He was just so easy to talk to.

"Did you talk to Ryuzaki yet?" Oishi suddenly asked.

"No…" Akane admitted. It had been several weeks since their match against Fudomine, and she still hadn't apologized to Sakuno for using her. "I don't even know if I should… she looks so _happy_ to be playing doubles…"

"It might make you feel better…" he said, blowing on his chocolate before taking a sip.

She nodded, trying to come up with something to change the topic. "Weren't you supposed to meet Kikumaru here?"

"Yeah…" Oishi glanced down at his watch. "He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago, actually. I wonder what's going on."

_Meanwhile…_

"I wonder if they're on a date…"

"I thought you were supposed to meet Oishi here, Eiji-senpai!"

"I was! But did he invite Ito along?"

"Ii data…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryuzaki…" Ryoma closed his eyes and exhaled, telling himself to be patient. "You're still losing your grip when you smash." Yes, this flaw in her playing was the cause of the banana-shaped bruise on his forehead. Of course, it was fairly enjoyable and almost worth it when she was leaning over him and making sure he was okay—'_Wait! What am I thinking?_'

"Ah… Gomen…"

"Don't apologize. Make it right." He reached out and adjusted her fingers over her racket. "If you hold it like this, you'll have a stronger grip, see?"

"Hai!" She blushed slightly. It was almost has if he was holding her hand. "Um… Ryoma-kun… I'm really sorry about hitting you with the racket a few days ago…"

"It's nothing."

The bushes rustled, but neither of them noticed.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, Yuuta-kun." Izumi greeted as she stepped in the door.

"Oh, Izumi-senpai," Yuuta said as he closed the door behind her. She'd come over several times in the past few weeks. "Hey. Aniki is upstairs in the studio. But Nee-chan isn't here today…" He looked confused. "Are you modeling today too?

She looked equally puzzled. "Yes, I should be… but if your sister isn't here…" Yumiko had always done her makeup, so it was pretty strange.

She went upstairs to find Fuji, who was on the computer. He heard her come in and turned his head. "Hi."

"Hey… I just heard that your sister isn't here, so maybe—"

"Yeah, she needed to stay at work for a little longer. But I don't think that we'll need her today." He motioned for her to come over. "Come look at this for a moment…"

She walked over and looked at the computer screen. "You're editing the photos?"

"I usually erase the parts in the background that I don't want…" He smiled, offering the mouse to her. "Do you want to try?"

Hesitatingly, she moved her hand to the mouse and slowly erased the background. She traced the eraser around her own shape, getting rid of the shadows. Her hand slipped a little and she erased part of her arm. "Ah, gomen."

Fuji chuckled, tapping a few keys on the keyboard to undo the eraser. "Here, like this…" He put his hand over hers on the mouse. Although she froze for a small second, she was getting used to his touch. As much as she didn't want it, they were getting closer due to the fact that she spent a few hours every week modeling for him.

"Hey, I wanted to try something else…" Fuji said quietly as he saved his work. Izumi immediately looked around the room curiously and noticed that it was empty. He pulled out his camera and a tripod. "Why don't you… dance for me?"

"Dance?" Izumi repeated. "Um… okay."

He smiled, setting up the tripod. "Whenever you're ready…" he told her, looking through the lens of his camera.

She breathed out, closing her eyes. She played one of her favorite tunes in her head, moving gently to the music. The clicking of the camera interrupted her thoughts and she stopped. "Something's not right," she told him, opening her eyes. "It doesn't feel right. I… don't think I can…"

He told her to imagine that it was like she was on the tennis court, naturally moving, and she did try. Her movements were fluid and elaborate, but it lacked _feeling_. It was as if she was dancing purely for show, on a superficial level. "Something's missing…"

"Wait." Fuji said, changing a setting on the camera that would cause it to take a picture every 1.5 seconds. He went to the side of the room and picked up his flute. Izumi couldn't help but notice that it was already pieced together.

"You… you prepared that, didn't you?" she asked.

He kept smiling. "If only you'd seen how you danced at the sushi place last time…"

"But I don't know how I did it last time… I don't remember any steps or anything!" She felt self-conscious with the camera clicking every second.

"Just dance." he repeated, raising the flute to his lips. He played the same melody as he did a few weeks ago. The bare music was just longing for some movement to accompany it, and before she knew what she was doing, her feet were gracefully moving across the floor. She felt the music wash over her, gently caressing her as she twirled. She imagined that she was dancing upon water; lightly, gracefully, tracing ripples. Her hands became blooming flowers, flickering flames, wings in flight… And there was a feeling that she couldn't describe… she didn't feel happy, nor sad… almost _refreshed_ in a sense.

'_I feel… free…_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I hate parent-teacher conferences…" Momoshiro complained as he and Sayaka led their parents down the hallway to their homerooms.

"You should talk…" their father told them. "You don't have to go to _four_ of these meetings where your teacher tells you that your child is crap."

"Hey!"

"Oh, look, buchou brought his grandfather!" Momoshiro said suddenly, pointing to Tezuka leading an older man dressed in a hakama. Sayaka turned immediately.

"Well there's a spitting image…"

"Yo, Namazu-chan." Suzume appeared next to them.

"Hey…" She introduced her parents, and Suzume introduced them to her brother. Now that she knew Suzume's father was deceased, Sayaka vaguely wondered where her mother was. It was interesting to see people with their parents. It was always so surprising. Take Inui, for example. He, (surprise, surprise) had an extremely normal pair of parents.

"Ah, Fuji-senpai!" Momoshiro called waving. Several of the guys were eyeing the beautiful girl that was accompanying him, which was Yumiko.

He smiled back, then took his sister up the stairs. The third years' homerooms were on the third floor. "Good morning, everyone." he said to everyone that was crowding around his homeroom, waiting their turn with the teacher.

The crowd would probably be smaller if Tezuka wasn't standing in the middle of it. Several girls were pointing Tezuka out to their mothers. Several _mothers_ were staring at Tezuka longingly. Kikumaru bounced over, snickering. "Tezuka is pretty popular, isn't he?"

"Hey, Eiji… who's in there now?" he asked.

"Oh, Watanabe-chan is," he said cheerfully. "They're going in backwards alphabetical order!"

"Yeah, why on _earth_ are they doing that?" Oishi asked.

"Sensei lost the slip of paper that had the As-to-Ms names on it," Akane said, rolling her eyes. "I just found it for her. She had to start from the back."

"Well at least this way, it delays the pain a little…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryuzaki-chan is doing quite well…" her teacher was saying. "However, her grades have taken a slight drop since she joined the tennis team… I'm a little concerned."

Sumire Ryuzaki merely smiled. It didn't matter to her if her granddaughter wasn't acing every single subject. As long as she was above the minimum grade requirement that allowed her to play on the tennis team, it was okay with her. '_No,_' she suddenly thought. '_I must stop thinking like that._' "Is there any subject is particular that she needs work on?"

"English," her teacher replied promptly. "As you can see, she's nowhere near failing, but it _is_ her worst subject and I'd appreciate it if she had more help at home.'

"I think I can arrange a tutor…" she murmured.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Your sister is failing everything." the teacher said bluntly. Strangely, Suzume started to think her teacher resembled Akane now.

Her brother Kai took the situation very delicately. "I'm extremely sorry about this, miss, but the last time I heard, straight Ds were not a _fail._ The symbol for that is an 'F'."

The teacher gave him a look. "It's an Asian fail."

Suzume rolled her eyes. Yup, this teacher was looking more and more like Akane by the minute.

"You must understand that she's been through a very hard time—"

"I'm concerned with her involvement in the tennis team. The team constantly has to use up class time for tournaments, and takes up her free time as well. This is time that she could be used for _studying_."

"Look, my sister's grades weren't any better when she _wasn't_ part of the tennis team," Kai pointed out. "And the tennis team… it makes her _happy_. That's all I want for her right now."

_******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

"Your daughter is doing extremely well."

Izumi felt her mom grip her hand. "I'm proud… but it's so stressful for her. She tries so hard, you know?"

Izumi shook her off and stood up, walking outside. She didn't care how rude she looked. She closed the door behind her. It was nearing noon, and most of the people outside had cleared. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the wall.

"Izumi-chan!" Chiharu said.

"Hi…"

"Aren't you supposed to be in there with your mother?" she asked. She caught sight of Izumi's expression. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" She sighed. "I really don't like it when they talk about me as if I'm not there."

Chiharu reached out and pulled her into a hug. "Hey, it's going to be okay…"

Somehow Izumi felt that Chiharu had guessed more than she let on.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Aiko, it seems you are doing okay!" her mother said in perfect Japanese.

"I'm barely passing my subjects," Aiko replied, but inside she felt relieved. She thought that her mother would be disappointed in her.

"Hey, you are going to be fine…" Her mother hugged her. "Okay? Now we just need to consider a Japanese tutor for you…"

"I'd really like that." Aiko said. Class would be so much easier if she could understand it. Not only that, but she was tired of people laughing at her accent and she hadn't really made any friends since the start of the year. Of course, Oishi was in her class and often defended her the best he could but… he was a bit of a pushover himself.

Man, was Ryoma helpful. She often went downstairs to drag him up to the third year classrooms for translations. Not that he was very willing, but two Pontas a week and he was quite happy to help her.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So how'd it go with all of you?" Kikumaru said as they sat down with their trays. Since the parents were in a meeting upstairs, and plenty of students were still missing, all of them sat randomly in the cafeteria instead of being segregated by several cliques. That meant that the tennis team found the largest table and filled the seats quickly.

"Okay, I guess…" Chiharu, sensitive as she was, noticed the slightly forced smile on Fuji's face. "Is something wrong, Fuji-san?"

Kikumaru giggled with glee. "He just got another confession!"

Izumi suddenly found her salad very interesting.

"Ooh, really?" Kimiko squealed, clapping her hands together. She enjoyed gossip. "Tell us about her!"

This caused Kikumaru to go into a fit of laughter. "_Her_?"

There was a long pause.

"It was a _guy_?"

"Yup."

"Fan_boys_?"

"According to my stalkin—ahem, research, Tezuka's fan club is the biggest, with 107 fangirls; Fuji comes a close second at 79 fangirls and 22 fanboys."

"Thanks Inui…"

"Tezuka-saan!" Two girls approached the table, noticing that the place next to him was empty. "Can we sit here?" She had already put her tray down. The other girl didn't have a place to sit, but since Tezuka was about an arm's length away, she was willing to sit on her friend's _lap _if that was what was needed. Tezuka didn't even glance at them.

"Sorry," Suzume said. "Chiharu-senpai is sitting there. Bye."

"But… Oshiro has a seat over there…" the girl said, pointing.

Suzume crossed her arms. "Logic has never been my friend. But violence is, so—"

That did it. The two girls ran for it. Suzume had quite a reputation.

"Hey," she said, snapping her fingers at Chiharu, who hadn't budged. "Senpai, I'm serious. You better move before some more of those rabid fangirls try to take that seat."

"Umm… I really don't—"

She grabbed her senpai's tray and shoved it, sliding it over to the empty spot. It went a little over the edge, and Kikumaru had to dive for it to prevent it from falling. "Like I said, logic isn't really my friend."

"O-okay then…" Chiharu got up and moved shyly.

"Morioka-senpai, you might want to move over before one of those _guys_ comes over and takes the spot next to Fuji-senpai."

Izumi moved another place right of Reina, so that she was next to Fuji. Some of those guys that were staring hopefully had downcast expressions on their faces. "Thank you." Fuji whispered gratefully, and a rare smile appeared on Izumi's face.

The rest of the meal was pretty uneventful. It was a bit awkward, as they felt the eyes of the rest of the student body upon them. Most of the girls directed waves of hate with their eyes towards the girls at the table. However, none of the crazy fangirls did anything until Chiharu stood up to dump her tray. She'd almost made it to the conveyer belt on the opposite side of the room when one of the girls conveniently stuck out her foot. Had it been Izumi, or Sayaka, they would've been able to dodge it. But this was Chiharu, and being the klutz, she fell straight to the ground, shattering her plates of food.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Oishi got up started moving towards her.

"Bitches…" Suzume muttered under her breath as she also got up. However she was moving towards the girl that tripped her.

"Oi!" Momoshiro grabbed Suzume's arm. "You can't!"

"Watch me."

"Kimura," Tezuka said. "Stop."

She glanced at him. He'd also stood up, but wasn't moving at all. She felt a surge of anger on Chiharu's behalf. Ripping her arm out of Momoshiro's grasp, she continued striding forward. "Stop me yourself."

"Kimura." he repeated more forcefully. Suzume stopped. She didn't know why.

Before Oishi had gotten over to Chiharu, someone was already there, helping her up. "Nii-san?" Suzume said softly.

"Sorry this had to happen to you, Chiharu…" he was saying. "I guess some girls aren't as mature as you are."

This drew several indignant gasps from around the crowd. Yet some of the girls had guilty looks on their faces. Kai had that effect on most people.

"I'm guessing the conference is over?" Fuji was asking his sister, who just came down the stairs.

"Yeah, it was really boring too…"

"Senpai, are you okay?" Suzume was asking as Kai brought Chiharu back to the table. Oishi was examining her for scratches or cuts.

"She's fine," Kai answered with a smile.

"Kai-nii, you've met mostly everyone already. These are my senpais from the tennis club…" She proceeded to introduce everyone. Kikumaru shook Kai's hand really enthusiastically. "Your sister is one of my favorite kohais!" Fuji then proceeded to introduce his sister to everyone who didn't already meet her.

"I guess the rest of the parents/guardians must still be upstairs talking with the teachers. I was a bit tired of hearing how awful my sister is." Kai said, affectionately putting an arm around Suzume. She smiled.

"That's really nice of you…" Yumiko said. "And what you did for Oshiro-chan back there was really sweet…"

"Can I ask of your age?" Kai said politely.

"I'm 24, 7 years older than Syusuke here."

"Really? Me too." His tone was very… strange. Suzume and Fuji exchanged a glance. Was it possible he was… _interested_?

Yumiko smiled and looked down in an almost _shy_ manner. She adjusted her bracelet. (Fuji, of course, found this extremely amusing.) "So… why are you here instead of the parents? Mine went to his little brother's conference instead."

Suzume felt Kai's arm tighten around her. "I'm sorry…" he said quietly. "It's kind of personal…"

"Oh, gomenasai!" Yumiko said, alarmed. "I didn't mean to pry."

He smiled. "Well, you can make it up to me by letting me take you out to dinner tonight."

Long pause. Long, silent pause.

"I'd love to."

Everyone hit their smiles behind their hands. Fuji and Suzume exchanged another glance, this one carrying a mischievous look. They were going to have a lot of fun with their siblings…

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Did your brother say anything?" Fuji asked during practice the next afternoon. They were running the usual amount of laps.

"Only that Yumiko is the nicest girl he's ever been with," Suzume told him between breaths. She had forced it out of her brother yesterday evening. "What about her? She say anything?"

"Not really, but I think she had a really good time. She can't wait for him to ask her out again."

"I'm on it," Suzume said, pulling out her cell phone. "Tell her to expect a date for tomorrow."

"Fuji, Kimura," Tezuka said as he ran past them. "No talking. You're disrupting your breathing."

Again, they all crossed the finish line at the same time, and all were spared of the pitcher bubbling with green juice. As Inui began going through the menu for the day—pairs practice—he suddenly stopped, confused. There was an odd number in the group. Someone was missing.

"Izumi's not here…" Akane suddenly said. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her all day."

"Was she in class today?" Tezuka asked Kikumaru and Fuji, while thinking of how many laps to assign her as punishment if it turned out she was skipping practice. There _was_ her health to consider.

Kikumaru frowned. "I didn't notice that she was missing… Did you, Fuji?"

Fuji shook his head. "We had a test second period, so I guess we were too caught up in our work. But we should've noticed during roll call…"

"Well, if any of you see her later, tell her that I expect 30 laps around the court for being late."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

—FLASHBACK—

'_If I had reached that ball… she wouldn't have had to run recklessly to reach it. She wouldn't have gotten hurt. If I had _trusted_ her, she wouldn't have had to prove herself… and none of this would have happened._'

The doctor easily patched up Kimiko's cuts with several scraps of cloth. She asked if there was anything that could make it heal faster, and he decided to prescribe some cream for her to apply to the wounds every evening. When he left the room, Aiko shuffled towards her a bit awkwardly.

"I just want you to know…" she said, enunciating every word clearly in Japanese. "That I trust you."

—END FLASHBACK—

Although Aiko was still tending to hog the ball a little, she was beginning to learn how to play with Kimiko. If she held the opponents back at the baseline, Kimiko could suddenly intercept a shot and hit one of her classic cord balls or drop shots, and her opponents wouldn't be able to reach it. That meant letting Kimiko make all the point-scoring shots. That was… okay with her.

She was an aggressive player; defense really wasn't her thing. Akane suspected that Aiko's frustration at being stranded in a foreign environment added to the sheer _force_ in her play. And she _liked_ the spotlight, which made it hard for her to give it up.

A few weeks of playing together, and they worked it out wonderfully. Even Akane was impressed. "It's because Aiko's jumping skills are really good!" Kimiko said, jumping up and down after they'd won a match against the Sayaka-Sakuno pair. "If I force the opponent to lob, then Aiko can get it!"

Aiko smiled slightly, but she glanced at her arm in dissatisfaction. In order to keep her opponents back at the net and the same time stay true to her aggressive style, she needed to hit powerful shots, risky shots—'_stunners_' as they call them in the tennis world. The shots are the type that shush the crowd completely and are played over and over on online video sites. One problem: they had an extremely low accuracy rate. Errors were high. She needed to perfect a shot that was un-returnable… but was nearly always _in._

"Hey, Kawamura-san…" she said, approaching him. She didn't bother to use Japanese.

"Yes?" He turned around.

"Teach me the Hadokyuu."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Next day…_

Fuji and Kikumaru paid special attention to Izumi's empty seat this time. Neither of them could figure out why they didn't notice her missing yesterday. Had she been missing? Or had she just been skipping practice?

The teacher went through roll call smoothly, and began giving out the tests all of them took yesterday. The class groaned. Fuji and Kikumaru both got their tests back and looked fairly satisfied with their results.

Suddenly, it hit him. "Eiji…" Fuji said. "Did Sensei call Izumi-san's name out during roll call?"

"That's it!" Kikumaru cried. "No, she didn't! That's why we didn't notice!"

After class, they both got up and approached the teacher. "Sensei," Fuji said. "Why didn't you call out Morioka's name during roll call?"

The teacher put her papers in the briefcase and closed it with a decisive _click._ "Morioka has taken a leave of absence." She focused her squinting eyes on both students, looking at each of them in turn suspiciously. "That's all there is to it."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Leave of absence?" Tezuka repeated during practice. "Under what circumstances?"

"Sensei wouldn't say." Fuji said.

"You have to get permission from a parent to take a leave of absence," Akane put in. "It's probably important."

"Ryuzaki-sensei couldn't get any information out of your homeroom teacher either," Oishi said. "It seems that it was a very private matter."

"Since the upcoming tournaments are several months away, I'll let it go," Tezuka said sternly. "But not telling the team about it was irresponsible of her."

"She might have a good reason why she doesn't want you to know." Suzume muttered quietly.

Fuji heard her.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Two days later…_

"You were off by half a step, Suzume!" Akane said, pointing at her feet.

"I got the ball in, didn't I?" she answered with an eye roll. However, when she smashed the ball again, her step was on time. That was one of the things Akane liked about Suzume. She'll sneer off all your criticisms, but inside, she really takes it seriously.

Yet today, she seemed to be extra-sneery and extra irritated. Akane suspected it was because a certain member had been missing for four practices. Within the month and a half that the team was together for, they had become quite close. Although they all had their own little circles of friends, the tennis team was becoming a circle that was growing tighter.

Akane still sat with Chiharu at lunch, and they still talked with their friends such as Natsuko (who was completely in love with Fuji), but in the hallway, they would always greet Sayaka, Kawamura, Momoshiro—people they never really talked to before. Izumi became closer with Fuji and Kikumaru, people she used to ignore in class. Kaidoh found new senpais to admire—Aiko and Reina, to name two. And Sakuno, the shyest, now had a whole new array of friends.

"Izumi-chan's still not back…" Chiharu said, a wrinkle of concern in the middle of her brow as she drank from her water bottle. "I wonder if everything's all right…"

"Her cell phone's on, but she's not answering calls or texts…" Reina said.

First Suzume, now Reina. When Reina began speaking in an understandable language, it's a sure sign that something's wrong.

"I called her at her home…" Inui said, popping out of nowhere like he usually did.

"Really?" Half the team crowded around, not even bothering to ask how much data collection he did in order to find out her home phone number. "What did she say?"

"She didn't say anything. Her parents claimed she wasn't home," He pushed his glasses up his nose. "We've got a missing member here."

"If she's not home… where could she be?"

"We should conduct an investigation!" Kikumaru suggested enthusiastically.

"Ne, where's Ryuzaki?" Ryoma suddenly asked out of the blue. They looked among themselves. Sakuno also appeared to be missing. Practice had only started for about 10 minutes… but it wasn't like her to be late.

"Noticed she was missing rather quickly, didn't you?" Momoshiro grabbed Ryoma and rubbed his fist against the first year's hair.

"I've heard of this before…" Inui said, lowering his voice. His glasses flashed. "The unknown force will hunt us down, one by one…"

"Inui!" Oishi scolded. "Now look, Kaidoh's missing too!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Tezuka Kunimitsu was not in a good mood.

His history essay had gotten an 89. Well, it_ was_ their history teacher—she was known for giving the harshest grades. And if he'd gotten an 89, it usually meant that all of the 3rd years had gotten bad grades. Fuji had gotten an 87, and that was with his help. As long as he, Tezuka, was at the top, it was fine.

Izumi had gotten a 93.

That didn't bother him _that_ much. What bothered him was that he couldn't even _borrow_ her essay to see what she did better than him.

No, that wasn't all. His team wasn't doing so well, as seen in the last practice. Suzume had completely missed the basket she was supposed to be smashing at and hit Momoshiro in the chest. He thought it was on purpose, and she—being Suzume—encouraged that thought. After he'd given them both laps, Inui thought it would be funny to have Kaidoh and Aiko drink his new juice to see who had the stronger Juice tolerance. Those two went to the infirmary, and Inui got 50 laps.

It wasn't even that. He should've expected that at any normal practice. But even Reina and Oishi—two of his most steady, most precise members were making unforced errors that were just… _stupid_. And then Akane wasn't reading her opponents movements well, and Fuji's Higuma Otoshi went out. TWICE. Ryoma got hit in the face with a ball from Sakuno that he could've EASILY returned. And Chiharu, _Chiharu_ of all people was misinterpreting the ball's path.

And this—this shouldn't have bothered him, but the court was a bit quiet. Too quiet. Both Kimiko and Kikumaru had shut up for most of practice. For the first 30 minutes, he enjoyed the silence. But after that, it was just irritating to _not_ have those hyper squeaky voices disrupting the peace.

On top of that, Suzume's tennis privileges were being threatened again. Apparently, some of the girls in his fanclub had spilled coffee all over Chiharu's books on purpose. _That_ bothered him the most, and he didn't even know why. Suzume ended up sending several girls to the infirmary. He understood why she felt angry, but why did she had to be so _protective_ over Chiharu…

_And_… his arm was aching again, so he was scheduled to see the doctor today. That also irked him.

So, when he got to the courts and saw his team members taking an elongated water break… well, they sped off to practice before he could say anything. They knew not to get on the bad side of their captain when he was wearing _that_ expression.

A quick scan around the court told him that Izumi wasn't back yet. Sakuno wasn't there either, he noticed. '_Please don't tell me that two members missing means that today's practice will be twice as bad as yesterday's…_'

No such luck.

After seven missed balls in total, two overturned baskets, and a new batch of Inui Juice that had the side effect of vomiting on the spot, Tezuka was ready to blow his top.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno was rushing back to school. Her grandma had asked her to pick up some tennis equipment for the clubhouse, but told her to be back on time. She checked her watch. 15 minutes late. If only she didn't get lost at those crossroads…

"Sorry!" she said as she pushed open the door to the tennis courts, panting a little. "I'm so sorry I'm la—!"

"You're fifteen minutes late," Tezuka said coldly. "What have you been doing?"

Everyone on the court stopped what they were doing and turned to stare. Never had they seen Tezuka use such a harsh tone on a girl before.

"I-I'm sorry…" Sakuno stammered. "I was—"

"Ten laps around the court!"

Sakuno's eyes filled with tears at being addressed so severely. Sayaka made a move towards her, but she swiped her arm across her eyes and began running before any of them reached her.

"Tezuka-san…" Chiharu said quietly. "You… you didn't have to be so harsh with her. She—"

"I will not tolerate anyone who breaks the rules," he said. He rested his eyes on her and repeated, "Anyone."

Chiharu's eyes widened. "I'm… sorry, buchou," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "I'll be running my ten laps for talking back at you now." The next thing he knew, Chiharu had joined Sakuno in running around the court. And he had no clue what was going on.

"Everyone, back to practice!" he barked.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Fuji…" Tezuka said when they were again the last ones in the changing room. He was rubbing his temples. "I don't understand what happened today."

"Hmm?" Fuji said, closing his locker and turning around. "What do you mean?"

"Why did Chi—everyone react so _strongly_ when I gave Ryuzaki ten laps?"

"Ah…" Fuji said with a knowing smile. "Girl trouble." He looked amused.

"Fuji…" Tezuka said in a tone that screamed: WARNING.

"Tezuka," Fuji shook his head. How dense was this guy? "You simply _can't_ address girls in the same manner as you do boys. And we thought you knew that, since you seemed somewhat softer with the girls before."

"That makes no sense whatsoever," he replied. "Both girls and boys should be treated equally."

"I'm not saying that you should've given Ryuzaki-chan five laps instead. But really, you didn't have to be so harsh about it."

Tezuka stayed silent and zipped up his tennis bag. He had a doctor's appointment to get to. Before he left, he turned around. "I hope Morioka gets back soon."

Fuji heard the door close behind him. "Me too."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Chiharu was sitting at her desk, her head in her arms.

She was crying again.

Not that it was a surprise to anyone. She's the kind of person who would shed tears over that commercial where the kid lost his dog. Some of them expected a puddle to have formed on her desk by now. No, a lake, that was more like it.

She'd calmed down a bit, but an occasional sniffle could be heard. All because she'd been 'scolded' by him. It didn't even count as being scolded. And it wasn't as if Tezuka was being especially strict with her—he was like that with everyone who broke the rules.

But still. It hurt.

"He doesn't deserve you…" One of her friends was saying in attempt to comfort her. "You should just give up so I can have a go at him," She grinned. "Just kidding."

"Yeah, I don't see what you see in him. I mean, Fuji is just as talented as Tezuka, and he's got these gorgeous blue eyes, and that smile… and when he talks in that low, velvety voice it completely melts my heart…"

"Kisa-chan, stop drooling," Akane had entered the classroom to pick up her books. She'd just finished changing. "Fuji isn't interested in dating. Actually, that might not be entirely true—"

"It's Morioka, isn't it?" Kisa cut in. "I mean, not that I don't like her, but isn't she a little… _creepy_? Pale skin, the dark spots beneath her eyes? Definitely vampire material."

Chiharu choked a laugh through all her crying. "Don't say that, Izumi-chan is really nice."

"Well, I don't have a problem with her, so if she gets Fuji, I'll have lost fair and square." Kisa shrugged good-naturedly. (Yes, nice fangirls do exist.)

"Hey, you know, we should go. The janitors are locking up soon." The rest of them picked up their bags and left, patting Chiharu on the back several times.

Akane picked up her tennis bag. It was bulging from the textbooks she stuffed in it. "Chiharu, stop being upset over Tezuka. It's not worth it."

She cracked another smile through her tears. "No sympathy from you?"

"Nope, if you're looking for someone to play Mom, go to Oishi," Akane said dryly. "I'm just me. Actually… the best person to go to for comfort…" Akane gave her a smile—the kind that won her several confessions a month. "Is you, Chiharu."

"Thanks…"

"You coming?" Akane asked, waiting by the door.

"I just want to be alone for a while…"

"Okay, but don't stay too long or you'll get locked in."

Chiharu closed her eyes and sighed, the sigh being punctuated by a few sobs left in her throat. She didn't even know why she liked him. It was just a sort of attraction. Of course, there was his appearance, which attracted everyone, but should've the negative sides to his personality repel them too? Look at Reina for example! She was the beautiful one, except all everyone did was stare and think why such a beauty had to become such a _nerd_. He was intimidating, aloof, and had a completely lack of social skills. Why… why _him_?

"Oshiro-chan?" Kikumaru suddenly hopped into the room. "Why are you still here?" He saw the tears. "Daijoubu?"

"I'm fine," She wiped the traces of tears away swiftly and forced a smile. "Why are you here, Eiji?"

"Nya, I lost my wallet! I've been looking for it forever! Have you seen it anywhere? All my ID cards and _everything_ is in it! I can't lose it, my parents will kill me!"

"Wait… Is it made of black leather, with a furry keychain of a cat hanging off the edge?"

"Yes! That's the one! You've seen it?"

"The office has it."

"Oh, thank god!" He collapsed in a chair. "And here I thought I was done for. Ne, Oshiro-chan?" he said, suddenly changing the topic. "Why were you crying?" He was tempted to make a joke and ask her if she'd squashed an ant or something, but he remembered what Oishi said about making insensitive remarks and kept his mouth shut. Besides, if he asked, the first thing she would do would be checking the bottom of her shoe.

"It's nothing. I'm just being stupid again."

"It's because of what Tezuka said, right?"

She reeled slightly. "How… how did you know?"

He grinned. "It's so obvious, Oshiro-chan! All of us saw it! And I think all of us thought he was a bit mean to Ryuzaki, but you know, that's just who Tezuka is. Hey, come here," He leapt up and pulled her into a tight hug. "Everything is going to be all right."

She had to bite her lip to prevent more tears from flowing out. "Tezuka—"

"—is a douchebag." he finished promptly. She laughed at that. He joked with her about Tezuka's never changing expression and the time that he drank Inui Juice. Even though her vision was still blurry, she was laughing. Her spirits considerably lightened when the janitor finally knocked on the classroom door and told them that he was locking up. He hugged her again and she whispered in his ear, "Why couldn't I have fallen for you…?"

He was so happy, so cheerful—something that Tezuka would never be, and she felt sad to think that she may never be able to laugh with him as she did with Kikumaru.

He blushed a little at her comment. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll work out with Tezuka. I mean, he's about as dense as that metal block over there, but he's not completely _stupid_."

"He doesn't even like me…"

"I'm not sure if that's true, Oshiro-chan," Kikumaru said, a twinkle in his eye. "You see, the only times we've nearly seen Tezuka smile was when he was with you."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Later…_

Tezuka finished getting an examination of his arm. It was supposed to be completely healed; even the doctor was at a loss of what these pains may mean. They decided to continue observing him for a few months, so he signed on to appointments every other week.

He buttoned up his shirt and thanked the doctor. He walked down the rows of hospital rooms towards the exit. All of the hospital rooms had names next to them, indicating the patients. The one Akane stayed at was in the emergency wing. Vaguely, he wondered if the ones Chiharu and Reina visited were in the research wing.

'_Chiharu_…' Her name brought back memories of that afternoon. He still couldn't figure out why she was so… upset? Maybe he should apologize. No, that was stupid since he didn't even know what to apologize for.

Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted. One of the names had caught his eye.

Ward 1709: Morioka Izumi

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi was reading her history textbook when she heard the knock on the door. "Come in," she called out. When she saw who it was, she felt the book slip from her hands and land in her lap. "Tezuka…san?"

"Morioka." he said curtly.

"Wh-why are you here?" She hadn't told anyone, and her teachers had promised to keep it a secret.

"I came across your room by chance. Morioka, why didn't you inform any of us that you'd been hospitalized?"

She could've lied. She could've said that she didn't want them to worry about her. That would've made her seem like a good person, right? Instead, the words that came from her pale lips were nothing but the truth: "Because I didn't want you all to think I was weak…"

Tezuka shook his head. "The whole team has been so _worried_ about you…"

"I don't want that!" Izumi retorted. "I don't want the team to treat me like I'm a frail, _sick_ person. I hate that. Weak people get sick."

"Do you realize that if I'd never known you'd been hospitalized… I would have given you 100 laps as punishment for skipping practice?"

"Do you realize that I would have run them?"

Tezuka closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. It was impossible to reason with this girl. "Morioka, you don't know the trouble you've caused just by disappearing like that." He proceeded to summarize the events that happened with her gone, and a smile flitted across her face when he named all the unfortunate events, one after another. "You have to _tell_ us if you're taking a leave of absence. There are things like programs and menus that need to be altered if a member isn't going to present."

She bent her head down. "I'm sorry for causing trouble."

"Why have you been hospitalized?" He glanced at the IV that was protruding from her wrist.

She followed his gaze. "I've been running a dangerously high fever for a few days and I started to be unable to keep down liquids. The doctor was afraid I'd become dehydrated, so he kept me under observation."

He nodded. He understood. Dehydration and high temperatures were keys to evolving into a seizure. "How long—"

"It's fine, I'll be out in a couple of days."

"Get well soon. We'll need you for the prefectural tournament." Before he turned to leave, Izumi called out.

"Tezuka-san. Please don't tell anyone."

The tone of her voice implied, "Please don't tell _him_."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ryoma stopped serving balls at Sakuno and let his arm fall by his side. The latter wasn't performing well. "Hmm… Something is bothering Ryuzaki…" he said.

"That's not true!" Sakuno got back into her 'ready' position. "One more, please!"

He waved her request away. "It's pointless. You aren't into it today." He got out two cans of Ponta and tossed one towards her. She missed it and fell. Didn't she always? She joined him on the steps leading up to the tennis court, sipping their drinks. They'd been practicing like this for quite a while now.

Normally, Sakuno would try to make conversation with Ryoma at this time, and he would listen, occasionally tossing in a word or two, but today she was silent.

Ryoma broke the ice. "Buchou will always be buchou…" he suddenly said.

"I… I don't under—"

"That's who he is. So you shouldn't be upset you got laps."

"I guess…"

"Everyone gets laps. He was in a bad mood, I think. I can never tell. His expression's always the same."

She giggled. Ryoma acted like he didn't care about anything, but sometimes she could tell that he was actually a pretty sensitive person. "I just… I hope Izumi-senpai is back soon."

"It's not nearly as bad as the time Momo-senpai quit on us."

"Yeah, but still… everyone wasn't doing their best today…"

He shrugged and finished his Ponta. He then tossed the can backwards at the garbage can. It missed by about half a meter and landed in the bushes.

"OW!" the bushes screamed. Sakuno jumped. "A talking bush?"

"Momo-senpai, Kikumaru-senpai, mada mada da ne."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Tezuka…" Fuji said after practice the next day. "You know where she is, don't you."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Izumi-san. You know where she is."

Tezuka stayed silent as he put his things away and zipped up his bag. How could Fuji tell? Well, he was a tensai, so this kind of thing should be expected.

"Tezuka."

He ignored him and picked up his bag to leave. Suddenly Fuji did something he hadn't done since they were first years in middle school. He grabbed Tezuka by the scruff of his shirt. The taller boy let his bag slip to the ground in shock.

Fuji's eyes were open, the blue of his eyes searching his face. "You know. Where is she?"

Tezuka didn't speak.

"You have no right to keep this a secret from us, Tezuka. She's our teammate, our _friend_ too."

His resolve crumbled. He'd only really known Izumi for about two months, whereas Fuji had been his friend for three years. "She's at the Tsuchiya hospital."

Fuji let go and picked up his bag to leave.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi had just finished reading the new chapter in her history book when there was a knock on the door. '_Tezuka again?_' She called out hesitatingly, "Come in."

This time, her book fell to the ground. "Fuji-san!"

"Sorry for bothering you," He smiled as he picked up her history book from the ground. "Here." His tennis bag indicated that he'd come directly from school.

She took the book from his hands. "Fuji-san… how… how did you know I was here?"

"Tezuka."

"But… I…"

'_But I told him not to tell you._'

"Did he tell you about your history grade? You got the highest mark in the grade—a 93. Congratulations."

"Thank you…"

The silence between them was awkward. This came as a surprise to both of them. After spending hours in each other's company they thought they'd moved past that barrier. "Izumi-san…" Fuji opened his eyes. "Why are you in the hospital?"

For a moment, she didn't answer. It was easier to answer this question when Tezuka was asking—he knew everything already. But Fuji… Fuji knew nothing. She swallowed and told him. He listened, sitting in the chair next to the bed. After she'd finished, she asked, "So… what do you think of me now?"

"No differently…" he promised. "Except… that's not all you're keeping from us."

The hint of a bitter smile appeared. "You're right…"

"Why…" Fuji's eyes scanned her face. "Why didn't you tell me that you were hospitalized?"

"I…" She avoided the question. "I didn't tell anyone."

"Tezuka knew."

"He came across the ward by _chance_. He had his arm examined in this hospital."

"I see."

'_Fuji couldn't be… jealous, could he?_'

She decided not to tell him who she met at the hospital.

—FLASHBACK—

_Four days earlier…_

"Yoshino-kun, moving day!" One of the nurses said to the boy that was in the room. "We're moving you to a shared ward! That way you'll have a roomie!" Izumi felt a little bad about taking his room as the nurses wheeled him away.

'_I hate hospitals. I hate hospitals._'

She hated how the nurses were all trained to have that sympathetic but cheerful expression. She hated the smell of medicine and disinfectant. She hated missing school and tennis practice. And she hated that she couldn't think of anything to do but work ahead in homework.

Hospital food was quite an achievement—she'd finally found something worse than airplane food and cafeteria food combined.

After lunch she finished studying for the quiz that was two weeks away and all her homework. The streaks of boredom were finally getting to her. Now she knew why that kid—Yoshino?—had brought his PSP.

Suddenly, the door opened. "Yoshino-kun, I've come to return the book I borro—" he stopped when he saw the girl lying there instead of his friend. "Well Yoshino, it seems you turned into a girl, and a cute one too…"

She wasn't sure how to react. She knew his face well. "They moved your friend this morning."

"So I see…" Instead of turning to leave, he stepped forward, extending his hand. "Hi, I'm—"

"Yukimura Seiichi," she said. She knew his name. Everyone that played tennis did.

He smiled as he took her hand. "Nice to meet you."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A/N: For those of you who wanted a love triangle, here's the first hint of one!

Next chapter will be wintery and leading into Christmas fluff. All the regulars are going on a trip to the mountains, courtesy of… one of the girls that's actually surprisingly rich.

I wrote a little list of boredom that's called "You Know You're Watching Too Much PoT When". Go check it out.

REVIEW.


	16. Hot or Not?

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't own.**

Quick update, right? RAWR.

It's a short chapter this time. Like a beginning of a new arc.

Dedicated to Elvira-RM, who drew a beautiful fanart of Aiko. It's exactly how I imagined her to be! Link is on my profile, go check it out.

Thanks to all readers and reviewers!

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Sixteen: Hot or Not?**

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Suzume stared at the letter in her hand.

She'd been sitting at her desk during lunch period when the office delivered it to her. Apparently it was mailed to the school rather than to her home. It was written with flowery script on paper that was probably at least 70% linen. She could smell the perfume that was sprayed on the letter. Or maybe they sold scented paper now. She had no idea.

Momoshiro was walking towards the cafeteria to buy some more food. He paused as he was walking behind her desk, half a sandwich in his mouth. "Oi Kimura, what have you got there?"

"It's a letter from my mother." she replied, not taking her eyes off of said letter.

"Your mother?" He leaned in to peer more closely at the letter.

"Yeah." She pulled out a thick bundle of train tickets from the envelope, counting them. There were exactly eighteen. "She wants all of us to go visit her. The tennis team, that is." '_She didn't even enclose tickets for Ren and Kai…_'

"ALL of us?" Momoshiro exclaimed, snatching the tickets. "Where does she live? The mountains?"

"That's just like her to force this upon us so last minute." Suzume shook her head. "Winter break is only a few days away."

"Do you even have _housing_ for all of us?"

Suzume handed him a brochure. "She owns this."

Momoshiro's eyes bulged out of his head. "Th-this is that new hot springs resort that hasn't opened yet! It's supposed to be seven stars! It's heated with natural hot springs and has an outdoor onsen and its own ski slopes!"

"Yeah, that's the one," Suzume said unenthusiastically. "But we're not staying there."

"What?" Momoshiro looked crestfallen. "Oh, okay. Where are we staying, then?"

"She's afraid it isn't good enough for us, so we're staying at the little mansion on the side."

"'_Little _mansion'?" Momoshiro said incredulously. He'd never heard a mansion being described as 'little'. Face it, mansions were mansions. "Are you _serious_?"

"What?" Suzume asked.

"I didn't know you were rich!"

"I'm not," Suzume said. "This is my mother's money."

"What do you mean?" he asked. The way she said it made it seem like they weren't related.

"Don't get me wrong. Even though there's always a sort of distance between us, my mom is still my mom. But it's just…" She shrugged. "I don't live off her money, you see? I'm in custody of my brothers. Both of them work, so it's enough to support us. Her money is… detached, you know?"

"Then you don't really have parents…" Momoshiro said softly.

"My brothers are my legal guardians," Suzume said. "They're all I've ever needed."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Regulars, gather round!" Tezuka commanded after practice had ended and the non-regulars had been dismissed. The days were pretty chilly now, although the skies had yet to grant them snow. The regulars took a moment to shuffle into their jackets before assembling in a line in front of him. The stoic captain looked at each of them in turn before speaking. (Or it seemed he looked at each of them in turn. His eyes jumped from Akane's straight to Reina's, skipping Chiharu.)

"Kimura's mother has kindly offered us a trip to the mountains in the Yamagata Prefecture, all expenses paid. We will be staying at her mansion, but we may use all facilities the seven star resort has to offer," He went on to talk about the duration of the trip and the crucial dates. "All in all, if we go, we will be spending most of the holidays there. Is everyone available?"

No one spoke for a beat. Some of them (Momoshiro) could barely contain there excitement, whereas others looked less than glad to be offered this trip.

"Why not?" Fuji said with a smile. "I've always wanted to go on a trip to the mountains with everyone."

"I'm free!" Kikumaru called, jumping up. "I can't wait!"

"It's more meaningful if everyone goes." Oishi pointed out. "I'll go as well."

"The tennis courts are available, right?" Tezuka asked Suzume, who nodded.

"Christmas with everyone!" Kimiko squealed. "I'm in!"

"Fsssh…" Kaidoh hissed in agreement.

Everyone else agreed, with the exception of Sakuno, Kawamura and Izumi (who had to check with their parents first), and Ryoma (who flat out refused).

"Come on, Ochibi!" Kikumaru pleaded. "It'll be fun!"

"Yadda."

"Echizen! Don't be a party pooper!" Momoshiro said, clamping down on the freshmen boy's head.

"Yadda."

"We need to give him some motivation…" Inui said. "Unfortunately, I have not yet finished my new batch of Inui Juice Deluxe Platinum Special, but…"

"Actually, Inui, that won't be necessary," Fuji said, pulling out an envelope from his bag. He reached into it calmly and pulled out a photograph, holding it out in front of Ryoma. "Unless he wants me to publish _this_ in the next edition of the school newspaper."

Ryoma recoiled a little, his cheeks carrying a faint tint.

Momoshiro tried to lunge for the photograph, but Fuji pulled it away, handing it to Ryoma. He stuffed it in his pocket immediately.

"Echizen, what was that?"

"Let me see, Ochibi!"

"I've still got the negative," Fuji continued. "So, your answer, Echizen?"

After a long pause, Ryoma finally gave a disgruntled groan. "Fine. I'll go."

"What's the photo of?" Kikumaru asked Fuji later. His eyes were large and curious.

"Not much. Just a little something I took that time he was practicing with Ryuzaki… Of course, a little bit of photoshop and you can make some things seem _very_ real…:

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"You should go, Suzume-chan…" Kai said, running a comb through his hair. "It'd be nice to see Kaa-san again, right?"

Suzume rubbed alcohol on the tiny infected area on her earlobe. It stung, but she didn't wince. "I don't know. I guess, but we're kind of used it now. She's never home."

"Well, it's your turn to go anyways. Last time Ren and all the pupils from the dojo went to the beach for a week," Kai smiled. "I remember when I got to go to Italy for that food festival…"

"I'm not going for the money," Suzume stated. "Kaa-san is… she's still our mother. She's just a bit of a workaholic. I think that's how she grieves. By the way," Suzume suddenly turned, looking at her brother. "You're looking awfully good tonight. Don't tell me you're taking Fuji's sister out again?"

He laughed. "Thanks for letting me know that I normally don't look so good."

"Don't even try to avoid the question, nii-san," Suzume said, just as the doorbell rang. "Ah, now who might _that_ be?" She gave him a significant look before opening the door. "Hi, Fuji-nee-san."

As her brother escorted Yumiko down the steps, Suzume called out, "Hey, I call bridesmaid!"

Now _that_ would give them something to think about.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Of course you can go, Izumi. If that's what you want." her mother said as they were eating. "I'm so glad you are making friends."

Izumi had almost wished her mother had said no. She thought maybe her mom would give in to paranoia ("They don't have good enough doctors over there! What if you get a high fever and don't get proper treatment?"), but apparently her mom decided to put her happiness first.

She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to go. Something just made her… apprehensive. Nervous.

'_Something…? Or… someone?_'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So this trip they're taking sounds pretty fun, right? My son is making me manage the shop all on my own for a week!"

Aiko had brought her mom to Kawamura sushi, insisting that it was the best sushi she'd ever had. Her mom immediately formed a rapport with Kawamura's father. Aiko could only understand snippets of their conversation, and felt extremely left out. She couldn't come up with anything to say to Kawamura either. Besides, he was working.

"Her Japanese isn't so good. I'm worried."

That, Aiko understood. Her mother said that so many times the Japanese pronunciation was etched in her eardrums. She bit her lip, half from anger, half from embarrassment. It wasn't entirely _her_ fault, okay?

Kawamura's father said something kindly, and Aiko's mom's face lit up.

"Really? That'd be wonderful! Thank you so much!" She turned to her daughter. "Did you hear that? Kawamura-san is willing to offer you work here! That way you can learn more Japanese!"

"Like waitressing?" she asked uncertainly. "Mom, I can't do that. I can't pronounce half the words on the menu."

"It won't be that hard," Kawamura said in English, picking up her plate. "We'll teach you."

Aiko considered it. The only way she could start living a normal life in Japan was if she spoke the language. "Fine."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Syusuke, did you pack your camera?" Yumiko said at the door.

"I did," Fuji said with a smile. As if he would forget something that important. "I'm leaving straight from school. Take care of Yuuta while I'm gone, okay?"

"Of course!" Yumiko immediately latched onto Yuuta, who had appeared next to her. "He's safe with me."

"Oi, nee-san… let go already…" After shaking her off, he smiled at his older brother. "Have a good trip, Aniki."

"By the way, Syusuke…" Yumiko said just as he was about to leave. "I did a Tarot card reading on how your trip will go. It is extremely possible that you'll find love before the holidays are over." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Ne, nee-san…" Fuji said. "Are you sure you didn't read your own fortune by mistake?"

She froze. Damn. He had her there.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I'm leaving now…" Reina said, picking up her bag.

Her mother shook her head. She simply couldn't understand her daughter. Within the last year and a half, her daughter had gone through a huge change. She couldn't describe the change as being positive or negative… it was just… a change. A huge change. Perhaps it was because her sister had decided to go to boarding school and never came back to visit. "Reina… are you _happy_?"

Only the sound of the door being closed answered her.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane-buchou!" Kimiko called, dragging behind her the biggest suitcase Akane had ever seen.

"Whoa… Kimiko, are you sure you didn't hear Suzume wrong? We're going for a _week_, not a _year_."

"Well, you know…" Kimiko said with a cheerful grin. "I like to be prepared!"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I can't believe you get to go…" Tomoka grumbled. "I want to spend Christmas with Ryoma-sama too!"

Sakuno smiled sympathetically. "I'm really sorry Tomo-chan, but Kimura-senpai only had eighteen tickets…" She held up two dresses. "Which one should I bring?"

"You can't bring those! You'll freeze!" Tomoka began throwing clothes out of Sakuno's closet until they were piled on the ground in a huge heap. Then she literally dived into it. She came back up with a couple of outfits that were more suitable for the frigid weather.

"Sakuno…" Tomoka's eyes started glinting as she thought of an idea. "Make sure you catch Ryoma-sama under the mistletoe!"

"Eh?" Sakuno turned bright red. "I-I… I can't do that!"

"You have to! Or…" '_Actually, I'm sure there are other people that'll make sure it'll happen_.'

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Tezuka, Oishi..." Sumire Ryuzaki had called both of them to her office on the last day of school. "I won't keep you for long. You're ending practice early today because you have a train to catch, right?"

Tezuka nodded.

She smiled. "I'm glad you are all going on this trip together. It'll strengthen the bonds between the team. But stay safe, okay? I'm counting on both of you to watch over the team and make sure no one gets hurt."

"Hai, sensei."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Today's practice was going fairly well, Tezuka decided halfway through the session. Soon he and the rest of the team would be on their way to the mountains. He'd gone to the mountains every year with his family, but was looking forward to this trip that involved just his friends. As much as he didn't show it, he enjoyed their company. Most of the time, that is.

Something was missing.

It had been over a month since he spoke with Chiharu.

He glanced in at her as she played a warm up match with Izumi. He still couldn't understand what made her so upset. Neither of them had approached the other and apologized, and apologizing now would be silly since the incident occurred nearly a month ago. She seemed to be ignoring him completely. At first, he didn't notice. It was only when he was taking the subway to his relative's house that he realized.

He had no texts to reply to on his mobile.

That just made him feel like a part of him was missing. He wondered if she felt the same.

"Excuse me, Tezuka…" A soft voice from behind him interrupted his thoughts. He turned around and saw the last person he expected to see.

"Yukimura…?"

The captain of Rikkaidai was accompanied by his loyal fukubuchou, Sanada. The blue-haired boy smiled. "I'm sorry for bothering you, but could I speak to Morioka Izumi for a moment?"

Tezuka blinked. How he knew Izumi and why he wanted to speak to her was a wonder. He glanced over, and saw that she was still rallying a ball around with Chiharu. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until we have a water break. I cannot allow a disruption in our practice."

He chuckled slightly. "I understand. We'll wait."

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Morioka," Tezuka said after they'd finally taken a break. She'd won the warm up match, but then again Chiharu didn't play to her full strength. "There's someone here to see you."

She looked around, her eyes resting on Yukimura. Her eyes widened in genuine shock. "I… I don't know what he's doing here…"

"He wants to see you." Tezuka repeated. She gave him a questioning glance and he nodded, giving her permission to go speak with him. She went outside and around the green wire fence.

"Yukimura-san…"

"Ah, Morioka-san. How are you?" He smiled.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital now?" She glanced at the person that was with him and had another shock. "Sanada…kun?"

"Do you two know each other?" Yukimura said, his gaze traveling between the two of them.

"We've been acquainted," Sanada said.

It was sort of true… except that 'acquainted' seemed far too close a word to describe their relationship. They hardly knew each other. Izumi used to live on the edge of the Kanagawa prefecture when she was younger. She and Sanada used to be neighbors. However, later her family decided to enroll her into Seigaku, and they moved. The traditional estates were always built close to each other. Actually, now she found that she was only a street away from Tezuka. Traditional families flock together.

"Yukimura-san… why are you here?"

"I heard that the whole Seigaku tennis team is going on a trip today…"

She nodded. She wasn't surprised he'd heard. News like this traveled fast (Eiji had loose lips), and several girls had asked if there were extra tickets, hoping that they too can spend the holidays with the regulars.

"I guess that means you won't be visiting me this week."

Again, she nodded. After spending a few days in Yukimura's company together at the hospital, she found she enjoyed it. She continued to visit him once a week.

"_Why do you play tennis…?"_

"_I don't know. It's like dancing… it makes me feel free. Like a release… Why do you?"_

"_Tennis is who I am. Without tennis, I am nothing._"

"I just want you to know," he continued. "That I really enjoyed your company." He handed her a single rose. "I hope you will visit me again."

Izumi just couldn't decipher her feelings at the moment. She'd be lying if she said she didn't feel flattered, but why was there a tinge of… guilt? "Thank you." She reached out to take the rose, only to drop it suddenly at a sharp pain to her finger. A single drop of blood had oozed from the tip of her index finger. The crimson contrasted with her white skin, and the first thing that came into her mind was that poster print that Fuji made. The black and white girl kneeling on the ground, blood painting her lips red, roses scattered at her feet.

'_Fuji…_'

She didn't need to look up to know that he was watching her.

"I'm sorry…" Yukimura said. "I should've checked for thorns. Here," He took her hand. "Let me." Much to her utter surprise, he raised her hand and put his lips to her finger.

Her eyes widened and she had absolutely no idea what to do or how to react. She just stood there.

Even after the brief moment of intimacy was over, she could still feel the touch of his lips linger on her hand.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ne, Fujiko…" Kikumaru said, with a puzzled face. "Since when does Morioka-chan know the captain of Rikkaidai so well?"

"Hmm?" Fuji turned around after taking a well deserved drink from his water bottle. His eyes fell on Izumi and Yukimura, who were talking outside the fence. Suddenly, he lifted her finger to his lips.

He froze, his azure eyes open. The sudden feeling that came over him was like nothing he'd ever felt before. There was a sudden dryness in his mouth that he couldn't describe, and his palm was beginning to hurt strangely. He then realized that he was clenching the water bottle so tightly it caused pain to his hand. The feeling didn't stop until after Izumi had re-entered the courts.

And even then, the aftertaste was bitter.

The only consolation he had was that the trip they were about to take was for Seigaku regulars only.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The roar of the train on the railway filled their ears as they waited at the station. "Mou… Ochibi's late again!" Kikumaru said, glancing at his watch every three seconds. "He better be here soon! We can't let him make us miss the train."

"Cheers…" The smaller boy made his appearance, cap in place.

"Ah, Ryoma-kun…" Sakuno smiled shyly.

"Let's go!" Kikumaru said cheerfully as they made their way into the line and began to board the train one by one. Because the train ride was a relatively short one, all luggage was carry-on. (Except for Kimiko's. Her oversized bag had to be put in the cart at the back—it was just too big.) Tezuka and Oishi stood at the boarding entrance of the train and passed the luggage onto it, one by one, much like a conveyer belt.

There was a rather large gap between the train and the platform, but all the girls could cross it pretty easily, due to muscle training in their legs. Kimiko and Sakuno were the ones that had a little trouble—while they didn't slack off on muscle training, they were certainly several inches shorter than every else. Kikumaru (after hopping on the train himself) and Oishi each took one of their hands and hoisted them onboard. Unfortunately, Sakuno's bag chose to split at that moment, and everyone near the entrance got on their hands and knees, helping her pick up her things.

Only Sayaka and Chiharu remained on the platform. Sayaka jumped onto the train easily, making most of her long legs. However, Chiharu paused, staring at the gap. There was no telling what her clumsiness would do. She decided to wait for Oishi and Kikumaru to finish picking up Sakuno's things first.

Tezuka automatically extended his hand out to her.

She hesitated.

He hesitated.

Everyone else watched both of them.

It'd be rude for him to retract his hand, and equally impolite for her to refuse it. It was a stalemate of feelings. She didn't move. He didn't move. Their eyes met. Then, cautiously, as if questioning her every move, she reached out and took his hand. He grasped hers tightly within his, pulling her upwards. Even after she was standing on the train, she never took her eyes off his. They just stood there, him looking down into her eyes, her tilting her head upwards to look into his.

Until finally, _finally_ Kikumaru poked Chiharu in the waist, distracting her, and the moment was broken.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The train ride was supposed to be only three hours long.

Well, three hours can seem like a long time when you have nothing to do.

Reina was enjoying herself. She'd just won her second game of chess against Inui, who was constantly taking notes and muttering "It's illogical…" under his breath. However, even the fun from that wore out quickly, and most of them were left with expressions of boredom on their faces.

Kimiko swung her legs out to the side of the seat to look at everyone else. The seats were in fours, where four people faced each other with a table between them. "Ne, let's play a game."

"A game?" the rest of them repeated.

"Sorta. It's like an icebreaker thing that I played at camp once when I was little. We'd say a label, and then we'd decide which one out of all of us fits that label."

"Label?"

"Yup. Like Best Dressed, Smartest, you know. Like superlatives!" She grinned enthusiastically. "Except all of you have to promise that you won't take it too seriously! Okay? I'll start! Hmm… Let's start with Most Talkative! Girls first!"

"…Kimiko, you have that category locked up pretty tightly…" Akane said.

"No duh," Suzume scoffed.

All the boys nodded simultaneously.

Kimiko sweatdropped. "Eheheh… okay, how about for boys then?"

"Eiji-senpai!" Sayaka said immediately.

"Yeah, Eiji-senpai!" Momoshiro agreed.

"Nya? I think… Inui! Because he's always muttering about something!"

"….Eiji, that doesn't mean he's talkative. It's like saying Ibu Shinji is talkative."

"Fine! Then I vote for Ochibi!"

"…I do not understand your logic, Kikumaru."

"…Momoshiro…" Kaidoh decided.

"What? Why do say that, Viper?"

"Easy! It's because you won't SHUT UP!"

"WHY YOU!"

"Okay, moving on!" Oishi said, trying to distract the two. "Umm… how about… Cutest?" He blushed a little. "I don't know… I can't think of anything."

"Kimi-chan is cute!" Kikumaru said. Kimiko glowed happily at that comment.

"Hmm… but I think Marui has a little competition in that department…" Fuji said, a thought stirring in his mind. "Oshiro-chan is pretty cute too… Don't you think so, Tezuka?"

Tezuka had been staring outside the window since the beginning of the game. He continued to do so.

"Tezuka?" Fuji prompted.

He turned, giving the tensai an irritated look. "Aa."

Momoshiro grinned, seeing how Fuji was going with the whole idea. He decided to take part in it. "Ryuzaki is pretty cute too, huh, Echizen?"

"I guess…" Ryoma said unenthusiastically, drinking from the ever present can of Ponta.

"I vote Marui-san," Oishi said.

"I think Chiharu is cute too… but Kimiko is a flashier sort of cute. I vote Kimiko," Akane said.

"That's not fair! Now I have two labels!" Kimiko pouted. "Fine. What about the boys then?"

"…Eiji-senpai, I think." Momoshiro said after some consideration. "Now he has two labels too."

"No way!" Sayaka said. "Echizen's "I'm better than you" attitude is too cute!"

Ryoma twitched at being addressed in such a manner. Kikumaru laughed and flung an arm around the smaller boy. "Of course Ochibi's the cutest!"

Most of the others nodded, or stayed silent, and they proceeded to the next label. Which Momoshiro decided to come up with: "Hottest!"

Several of them shifted uncomfortably. Suzume rolled her eyes. "Once a pervert, always a pervert."

"Oi, I'm _not_ a pervert!" he insisted. "Inui-senpai's the one with all the data like your weight and your three sizes!"

Suddenly all the girls turned to Inui. "And… how would Inui-senpai know that…?" Sayaka asked, her voice steely.

"Eto… Ano…" Inui felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Akane said. "Inui was the one that corresponded with the tailor for our uniforms."

"Ah." The girls then relaxed, and Inui thanked Akane mentally for being so practical.

Except that none of the boys wanted to offer their opinion on who deserved the label. They cursed at Momoshiro silently, because since the label was suggested they couldn't help looking at the girls' bodies in an entirely different way than before. The girls too, tried to act like nothing was wrong, but now they were totally self conscious about their figures.

"I think… Ito-senpai…" Momoshiro finally said. "No offense."

Akane was definitely the most curvaceous among the girls, no argument there. Inui's data could prove it. (Not that he brought it out.)

Now it was the boys' turn to be scrutinized. They felt like little ants under a magnifying glass, waiting to be fried. Of course, none of them would comment on each other—that was wrong. Momoshiro suddenly wished he hadn't chosen that label. Curiosity killed the cat, after all. However, the girls seemed to be enjoying this part.

"I don't know…" Akane said, savoring every word like she was enjoying the pain she was causing. "Kawamura's a bit _too_ muscular—" He blushed with embarrassment. "—Fuji's a bit on the skinny side—" His smile became frozen. "—and I'd be called a pedophile if I said Echizen—" He pulled his cap down.

"Eiji-senpai—too cute, Oishi-senpai is kind of on the skinny-cute side too…" Kimiko said, and nodded. Both of them turned red.

"So that leaves Momoshiro, Kaidoh, Tezuka and Inui," Akane summed up. "I think Kaidoh, actually."

"Kaidoh." Sayaka agreed, causing her brother's mouth to drop open in shock. "What?" she asked him defensively. "I can't have said _you_; that's called incest."

"Inui…" Izumi offered her opinion lightly. The rest of them goggled at her, including Inui himself. "Just a personal opinion…"

"Actually, I agree with Izumi-senpai there." Suzume said. "Just look. Kaidoh's still a bit on the muscular side. Inui-senpai is a perfect medium between two extremes."

"What do you think, Aiko-chan?" Chiharu asked kindly. She noticed that Aiko had sort of been left out of the game since the start, and she wanted to make that right. Besides, that way she could escape from answering herself.

Aiko simply pointed at Tezuka. Reina also nodded. "I also find Tezuka the most physically attractive… and it is 99.8% likely that Chiharu does too."

Everyone's eyes found their way to Chiharu. She turned the color of the rose Izumi had put on the table. "Wh-what?"

"Well?" Suzume prompted. "Do you or don't you?"

She wanted to hide behind her hands. She wanted to dive down a hole. Yet not answering was the worst possible choice. It would make her feelings more obvious than they already were. "Yes… I do…" she whispered. Everyone giggled and winked at her, before nudging Tezuka. "Hear that, Tezuka?" He ignored them, which was probably for the best.

"Wh-what about you, Sakuno-chan?" Chiharu asked in a desperate attempt to shift the attention to someone else.

"…I… ano… I don't know?" Sakuno said helplessly.

"It's easy," Suzume said, pointing with her thumb. "Which one of those idiots over there do you think is the best looking?"

"Eto… ano… I… um…" Sakuno stammered. It was on the tip of her tongue to say Ryoma-kun, but she wasn't sure if she found him _physically _attractive. Who was she kidding, she liked everything about him. But still… something seemed… _wrong_ about offering his name for the label. "Momo-chan-senpai, I guess." she finally said. That seemed like a pretty safe answer.

Of course, Momoshiro gloated, but the one beneath the cap was beginning to have a few doubts. He'd been almost sure that Sakuno would pick him.

"Most Beautiful Eyes…" Izumi suggested. "Let's do that one…" She remembered what Yumiko had said about Chiharu's eyes.

"Chiharu…" Most of the people said. Her soft amber eyes were simply… beautiful. They weren't stunning like Akane's, but they had a sort of soft, sweet beauty about them. Fuji asked Tezuka twice about his opinion, and he finally nodded his agreement. Kimiko put Akane's name forward as well and Oishi agreed with her.

"Chiharu-senpai gets that one…" Sayaka said. "What about guys, then?"

Most of the girls said "Fuji," simultaneously, but they were broken by one voice.

"Inui," Reina declared.

"EEHH?"

Inui put his hand to his head. "I forgot. You've seen them, haven't you?"

"REINA'S SEEN INUI'S EYES?"

She realized her mistake. "Once. Only once," Reina emphasized, holding up her hands.

"Hey, that's more than any of us!" Momoshiro exclaimed. "So, what are they like? What color? Are they big or small?"

Reina closed her mouth in a tight line and shook her head repeatedly.

"Hey… enough about appearances…" Chiharu said, noticing that Reina looked uncomfortable. "How about who has the best voice?"

"But I wanna hear more stuff about Inui's eyes…" Kikumaru whined.

"Best voice?" Sayaka grinned. "More like Sexiest Voice, if you ask me." She laughed at the almost scandalized look Chiharu gave her.

All of them paused to ponder for a while, trying to recall the voices of their friends. "Actually, I think Kimura has a nice voice," Momoshiro decided. Suzume gave him a killer look and made a vow to talk less often. Who knew what kind of perverts out there had a fetish for voices?

"I think Morioka-san…" Oishi said.

"Hmm…" Fuji murmured. "I actually think Watanabe-san has quite a seductive voice. The way those long words roll off her tongue…"

"Reina," Reina told him to call her, mentally telling herself to use shorter words. "Reina. Reina.

"What about the guys then?"

They all glanced over at the boys. Everyone was quiet for a moment, before Ryoma turned to Tezuka. "Ne, buchou. Say something."

Tezuka ignored him.

"I have a match tomorrow. What should I do?"

"Yudan Sezu Ni Ikou." The words were out before he could register what he was saying. It was a reflex.

Echizen and Momoshiro exchanged a glance. "Nope, not him."

"There's a 21% chance that Echizen will win that title. There's a 27% Fuji will get more votes than Echizen, if you consider the different components of fr—what?" All the girls were looking at him, intent expressions on their faces. He shifted nervously.

"Yup, it's you," Akane finally said. "It's definitely you."

"Oh look, we're almost here," Oishi said as the landscape outside slowed.

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

All of them stared at the place, their mouths agape. None of them spoke.

"What?" Suzume asked, slinging her bag over her shoulder. She walked towards the giant double doors, her hand reaching for the exquisite handles. "Aren't you going to come in?"

Momoshiro finally spun to face her. "_Little _mansion? _Little_?"

******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Atobe?" Oshitari was murmuring in the changing room after practice. "I heard Seigaku is taking a trip together to the mountains. We should do something like that too, as a team."

"I can _create_ mountains. Is that enough for you?" He toweled his hair dry. "But I didn't know a school like Seigaku could afford to send their students on a holiday together…"

"The school didn't pay for it. According to my knowledge, a student called Kimura did."

"Kimura?" Atobe frowned. "I don't know any rich people by that name, although it does sound familiar." He put his racket in his bag, zipping it shut slowly. He seemed to remember _something_ about that name… "Oh, you must mean that widow who was so overcome with grief that she threw herself into her work and racked up a fortune on her own." He shrugged. "Her wealth is only equivalent to about one sixth of ore-sama's."

"Atobe… that's a _lot_…"

**********xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**End Chapter Sixteen**

Okay, wait for the next one. The regulars explore the mansion happily and find everything they need, and so much more. New talents are displayed, old ones are renewed. The facilities the mansion and hotel offer leave them in awe. Especially when they decide to go to the onsen… only to find… it's a _mixed_ onsen? Oh dear.

**To Catch A Falling Star—**Chapter Seventeen (tentatively titled): Lifestyles of the Rich

REVIEW.


	17. Lifestyles of the Rich

**Disclaimer: **Don't own.

To make up for my hiatus I present to you a LONG, 31-paged chapter.

This chapter is dedicated to all my reviewers that wrote something along the lines like: "HEY. ARE YOU _DEAD_?"

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter Seventeen: Lifestyles of the Rich**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The inside of the mansion was no disappointment. Their steps echoed against the marble floor, their shadows being cast there by huge, crystal chandeliers. The ceiling was painted in beautiful artwork that would've impressed Da Vinci, if it wasn't actually _his_ artwork already. In this room, it was just so vast that Momoshiro really wanted to shout outwards and see how loud the echo would be—but that would be way too childish. Everywhere they turned, all they saw was rich elegance. _Rich_ was right.

"Suzume, darling!" A woman appeared at the top of the staircase, dressed in an extravagant evening gown. Somehow her attire seemed perfectly normal in the rich environment. She descended downwards gracefully, one hand gliding along the banister of polished wood. "I've missed you!"

"Mama…" Suzume hugged her tightly, sudden tears forming in her eyes. She blinked them back.

"And Chiharu, honey! Don't you look beautiful!" She proceeded to hug her, kissing her on both cheeks. Her expression became more serious. "It's that time of the year again, isn't it?" she asked quietly. "Do you still need some help?"

"That would be really generous of you…" Chiharu said.

"What's going on?" Oishi asked worriedly. "Are you in some sort of trouble?"

"No…" Chiharu said.

Suzume's mother spoke, "Chiharu's mother died during the winter. Her father goes into a sort of depression every year at this time, and locks himself in his room. I offered her a job last year in order to help support her family…"

"Mom, don't…" Suzume said as Chiharu ducked away. She gave her mother a look, which her mother returned defiantly, as if to say '_It's not a big deal…_'

There was a pause of awkward silence as all of them murmured some uneasy apologies, not sure how to react to such news. "So you have to work for a couple of months every year… to support yourself?" Fuji asked, confirming. His eyes were open.

Chiharu moved her head in a way that was a cross between a shake and a nod. "It's not as if we would starve if I didn't… it just helps a bit. You know, so I don't have to spend the money in the bank that's supposed to be for college. It's okay! Really… I'm used to it now."

Kimiko frowned. "Do you work…_ here_?"

"No, um, usually in the city. But I did work here last year. And it'll be nice if I could earn a bit of money during my vacation… just a few working hours everyday…" Her voice got quieter and quieter.

"Okay!" Kikumaru said. "So, what do you do?"

"I… erm…"

"Hey, let's go upstairs…" Suzume said, changing the subject. Chiharu looked uncomfortable. "I hate this room. It's so stuffy."

Her mother shook her head. "Suzume, you must learn how to _appreciate_…"

"—Mom, I'm taking everyone upstairs, okay?" She had already turned away and was making her way up the steps.

"Fine. Do what you want. I have a gala to attend with some investors, so you won't be seeing much of me today."

"I'm used to it…" Suzume smiled. There wasn't any bitterness in her voice—she'd long accepted the fact that her mother wasn't going to be around much. Thankfully, her brothers filled in that role for her.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I like this room much better…" Suzume said as she put her bag down on the floor and dropped onto the floor, lying down. This room definitely had a much more 'homey' feel to it. It was carpeted in a soft layer, and had a fire crackling merrily in the fireplace. Not so many elaborate decorations were in place—it had more of a simple look. There were several comfy looking sofas and what appeared to be rather elegantly designed bean bags.

"Everyone shares a room…" Suzume said, pointing to the various doors that were connected to this one. They all had little name tags on them. "If you leave your stuff on the floor, the maids will bring it to your room for you."

Oishi hesitatingly put his bag on the ground. Immediately, two women dressed identically scurried over, and grabbed his bag, taking it to his room. He jumped a little, startled at the sudden movement. Suzume laughed. "Took me a while to get used to that too…" She kicked her legs out, relaxing.

"Hey, what are we doing for Christmas?" Akane asked, taking her seat on the floor as well.

All of them looked at each other. "I don't know…?"

"We should buy each other presents!" Kimiko suggested happily. "That way we'd each receive 17 gifts!"

"That means we have to _buy_ 17 gifts though…" Momoshiro pointed out. But the thought of receiving so many presents was appealing.

"Maybe we should do that…" Akane said. "And Christmas carols and everything."

"Have a Christmas dinner…"

"Mistletoe…" Fuji suggested lightly, and everyone shivered. "I'm joking…" he reassured them, but he was secretly plotting. In fact, all of them were plotting on how to catch two unsuspecting freshmen under those cute white berries.

The sudden piano music caused them all to turn their heads. Reina had wandered over to the piano and was pressing her fingers into the keys in a soft, simple melody. Before anyone of them could ask her what she was doing, she opened her mouth and sang a long, high note.

All of them were struck silent. The note was high—higher than a soprano note… but softer too, at the same time.

"Dolphin's voice…" Akane said quietly. "It's the whistle register…"

The note swayed and curved before she brought it down back to a normal octave. Unaware of all of them watching her, she continued playing the melody and singing to herself. (Saikou no kataomoi by Tainaka Sachi)

_Itsumo sugoku jiyuu na anata wa ima  
Kono ame no naka donna yume wo oikaketeiru no  
Dokoka de kodoku to tatakai nagara  
Namida mo gaman shiterun darou_

Her hands left the keys abruptly, causing silence to rush in, smothering the last echoes of the keys. She turned around to where all the others were staring at her.

"That…" Momoshiro swallowed. "Wow. Why the hell aren't you on choir? You could totally get the lead!"

"Actually… no," Inui said. "Although Reina-san sings well, there is little hope of her surpassing the current lead, Natsuko." He shrugged when the others stared at him. "She's good, but Natsuko has a richer voice."

"True…" Sayaka agreed. Reina did have more of a breathy voice, rather than a wholesome one. Several other girls on the honor choir had better voices. "But still, she sings really well!"

"She's not really interested," Akane said, and Reina replied with a shrug. "She likes singing as much as the next person."

"Reina-senpai is the kind of girl that was _born_ to go into the arts!" Kimiko said suddenly. "She draws _and _she sings!"

"You're just not… interested." Momoshiro repeated.

"No…" she said. "It does not evince my interest."

Momoshiro gave her a strange look. "Man, you're a weird person, you know. I feel as if I'm seeing two sides of you. You take data… but you draw… you throw in a complicated word for every sentence—scratch that, five of them—but you sing… And you _can_ speak normally. Like Marui said, you're someone who's supposed to be in the arts. And you clearly have had practice with all the drawing and singing… so what's with the data and tennis side of you?" He scratched his head. "It's really… weird."

"You think that's weird?" Suzume shook her head. "You haven't heard anything yet," She paused, for dramatic effect, and then said it. "Reina-senpai used to be a Tezuka-fangirl."

There was a long moment of peace. Then…

"WHAAAAAAT?"

Reina covered her ears calmly, anticipating the yell.

Momoshiro and Kikumaru both sat up, pointing quivering fingers at her. "HOWWW?"

"It was just a mild infatuation," Reina said, waving it away. She looked at Tezuka. "Sorry if it ever made you uncomfortable." Tezuka gave an almost indiscernible nod. He probably didn't even notice her at the time, what with all the fans that he got.

"_Mild_?" Suzume rolled her eyes. "You call jumping up and down and waving a banner _mild_?"

The other regulars could _not_ picture Reina in such a manner.

"And what would you consider your current infatuation then?" Suzume went on. "If it caused you to _change_ so much, then—"

"Suzume-chan…" Chiharu suddenly cut in. "That's enough." Her tone was sharper than usual, and Suzume realized that she'd gone a bit too far. She tried to give Reina a (sort of) apologetic glance, but was shocked at the pure anguish displayed on her senpai's face. It appeared that she had struck a very sensitive nerve.

"Wait, what?" Momoshiro asked, oblivious. "So why are you like this now? Y—" Sayaka kicked him in order to shut him up. Awkward silence once again descended among them.

It was then that Chiharu first heard it. It was a faint sound, but it caused her breathing to quicken and mysterious tears to fill her eyes. She heard it, she saw it, she felt it on her skin. It frightened her. It was what she imagined a flower's screaming to sound like when one twisted it and plucked it from the ground.

More than one of them had that look of anguish in their eyes.

Silently screaming.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"What's the matter with you?"

Chiharu turned from the dresser to see Akane glaring at her. Well, not really glaring. "What?"

"You. You and Tezuka. Something's not right between you two. What's going on?"

"Nothing!" Chiharu said. And it was true. Nothing was going on between the two of them. But somehow that's what made it wrong.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So what's going on with you and Oshiro?" Fuji asked lightly as they were unpacking.

Tezuka froze for a moment. Then he went back to putting his things away. "What about her?"

"Nothing. Just that you two don't seem as close as you did before… Well, there was that little bit on the train that was nice of you, but—" Fuji shrugged. "Something that I should know about?"

"No."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, Morioka-senpai!" Suzume rapped her knuckles against the door, even though it was already open. Izumi and Reina were unpacking. "We have a dance studio down at the resort, next to the martial arts room. It has mirrors all around and surround sound speakers and all that. You should check it out."

Izumi's looked up. "I'd like that."

"Everyone's going over to the hotel, so meet us at the front gate in half an hour." She turned around and left.

Izumi looked around her. It didn't look like they'd be done in half an hour. Their room looked like a tornado hit it. Clothes and random things were strewn everywhere. It turned out that Reina was not a very neat packer. A bit surprising, really.

Reina was staring at the mess as if it would clean itself up.

"Reina-san…?" Izumi murmured quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" She blinked herself back to earth. "I am well, thank you. I just…" She paused. "Izumi-san, do you find me... very different from when I was a freshman?"

"...yes…" Izumi replied truthfully. If she didn't know better, she'd say that the 1st year Reina and the 3rd year Reina were two completely different people. The personality switch was alarming. She worried for her, sometimes even more than she worried about herself.

Reina stared at the pile of clothes some more. "Maybe it's worth it." she murmured to herself.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"This has got to stop," Akane said quietly to Fuji, jerking her head towards two particular people. Even though they were standing within arms length of one another, they seemed to be giving each other the silent treatment. Chiharu seemed to have her head purposefully turned away from him, although the light blush across her face betrayed her. "Seriously. They're trying so hard to stop thinking about each other that it's getting painful to watch."

"Are you whispering about how to hook Chiharu-senpai and Tezuka-buchou up?" Suzume asked, not loudly but not quietly either.

"Suzume, you haven't heard of _subtlety_ before, have you?"

"I'm just saying, while you're working that out, figure out how to hook those two up as well." Suzume pointed at Sakuno and Ryoma in turn.

If Ryoma heard her, he didn't show it. Sakuno turned red and looked away.

"They're doing fine on their own!" Kimiko chirped in. "Unlike those other two."

"It can't keep going on. It's stupid," Akane crossed her arms. "Any bright ideas, genius?"

"Actually…" Fuji murmured thoughtfully. "I think I have a few."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Why do I have to do all of this?" Aiko managed to say in between gasps of air. She had been bench-pressing for a while now. Her arms were aching.

"I beg your pardon?" Inui said, turning from where he was using the computer. Although no one could see how he was training, under the desk he was lifting his two legs in turn, heavy weights strapped to his ankles.

Aiko dropped the weights for a second and repeated in Japanese: "_This_. All this muscle training. It's so…" She wanted to say '_tiring_', but her pride wouldn't let her. "Boring."

"You wanted to learn the Hadokyuu, right?" Inui confirmed. "Then you have to keep training. Right now, the muscle training you're doing is only half of what Kawamura was doing during his time of mastering it."

Aiko went back to lifting the weights without complaint.

"Komboi-san," Inui said, as he typed up his notes. "Would you consider yourself more of a sprinter or a marathon runner on the track?"

"Sprinter," she replied immediately. "Why?"

He paused in his typing, thinking, before turning around in his chair. "You do have a great deal of stamina, though."

"…what?" '_I… have a something…_' Aiko couldn't quite catch that sentence. He said it too fast.

"Endurance. Stamina," Inui said in English. "You have a lot of stamina though."

"I guess…" she said, sitting up. She shrugged. "It comes with being black." '_Everyone expects you to be good at sports, so you try not to disappoint them…_'

He tapped his finger against the notebook, speaking slowly in Japanese now. "You don't allocate it well though. You use your energy all up in your sprints." He looked at his notes. "Basically, you have endurance, but you aren't persistent."

"I hate games that drag on…" Aiko said.

"But you used that technique against Oshiro," Inui frowned with concentration. "You dragged the game on as long as possible and then reverted to your sprinting form."

Aiko just shrugged again.

"Marui-san, on the other hand, is persistent but doesn't quite have the strength for it," He looked at his notebook again. "Your doubles pair could have all those weaknesses and be doomed for destruction …"

"I knew it."

"Or complement each other and become a solid wall…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sayaka was walking around randomly in the new hotel. Everyone else had found something to do and somewhere to go. There was a gymnasium that was definitely big enough for her to practice some of her stunts in, but she couldn't bring herself to concentrate right now. And it was too dangerous to practice _those_ kinds of stunts without focus—you could break your neck in a second.

She couldn't shake away her thoughts about that practice match with Reina. The latter had smoothly found all her openings, easily reading all her moves and countering them like she was born to do so. '_It's because I perform the same routine on the courts… my moves are repetitive…_' Sayaka wrinkled her brow in thought.

There was loud, upbeat music being blasted from one of the rooms, muffled by the glass walls. Sayaka moved towards it. '_Surely that can't be Izumi-senpai… isn't she a classical dancer? That music is too fast…_' Although the hotel hadn't officially been opened yet, there were some customers that bought their way in, according to Suzume, in order to enjoy the facilities before everyone else. It might've been one of them. Anyhow, she curiously opened the door and poked her head in.

It was Izumi, and it was classical.

It surprised her, that classical dance could be applied to a rhythm so fast. Watching silently, she couldn't help but notice how Izumi's movements were never the same. She pirouetted, she brush-kicked, she leapt… Not one move was repeated in the same sequence as it was before. It was impulsive and filled with feeling.

Izumi noticed her watching and turned off the music. "Momoshiro-san…?"

"Sayaka," she countered. "I thought we established that already."

"Sayaka-san… Do you need anything?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, actually I do." Sayaka sat down, her legs crossed. After hesitating a moment, Izumi did so too, although she seated herself on her folded legs in a very traditional manner. Seeing their positions like this, Sayaka felt like a disrespectful pupil sitting in front of her sensei. "Uh… what I wanted to ask was… how do you make your movements so random? I mean, they're so… unorganized—but in a good way, if you know what I mean?"

Izumi tilted her head in a questioning manner.

"No, like… er… it makes it really hard for your opponents to read your movements and whatever. It's not choreographed…" Sayaka tried to explain. '_Damn, I really suck at this… I might not even be as clear as Reina-senpai at this point._'

Izumi nodded thoughtfully. "Well… I always play a tune in my head, and then I just drown myself in it, I suppose. It's what I feel that controls the way I move."

Sayaka frowned in concentration.

"Gymnastics is different…" Izumi offered gently. "Everything is pre-choreographed, right?"

"Well, yeah…" '_Stupid safety regulations. You just _can't_ go from a triple salto to a somersault without landing…_'

"But don't forget, you _do_ know a bit of dance. Rhythmic gymnastics is partly that after all… Maybe you could talk to Eiji," Izumi suggested. "He plays acrobatic tennis."

"Yeah. I guess I'll do that."

"I'm really sorry that I couldn't be of more help…" Izumi said, her face crestfallen. She felt kind of useless.

"No, no!" Sayaka replied. "Thanks for just listening! Hey…" Her eye caught on the speakers from which Izumi had been playing the piece. "That was a fast rhythm. You're upping the tempo of your tennis style?"

"Reina-san recommended it," Izumi said.

"She catches onto a lot of holes, doesn't she?" Sayaka grinned. "I'm glad we have her around."

Suddenly both their heads swiveled to the doorway. There was no one there. "That's strange…" Izumi murmured. "I was sure…"

Sayaka felt it too. Someone had been standing there. She didn't know why she was so sure of that fact, but as she stared at the empty space she could almost _see_ the image of someone leaning against the door. "I… guess I'll go find Eiji-senpai now…"

Izumi nodded. "Good luck."

As Sayaka closed the door, Izumi stood up and turned on the music. Even as she danced, she couldn't shake that uneasy feeling off of her.

Someone was watching her.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryuzaki…?" Ryoma, as always, was on the tennis court hitting a ball towards the wall. He turned around to the brown-haired girl.

"Will…will you play a little with me?" she asked timidly. "I… I don't want to disturb your training…"

His facial expression didn't change as he said, "Sure. I don't mind."

Her face lit up as she eagerly got in position for a rally. Was it just her… or was he answering yes without hesitating anymore? It made her happy. She then told herself to concentrate as Ryoma served the ball.

It wasn't the twist; he was probably going a bit easy on her. She watched the ball carefully and aimed it back. They rallied for a few minutes, the _pok pok_ noise easily being heard from outside the courts. Finally, she leapt up and smashed it, ending the rally.

He smirked. "Not bad, Ryuzaki…"

She panted slightly from the exercise. "Ryoma-kun could've gotten that one…" She frowned. "Ryoma-kun was going easy on me."

He didn't say anything as he pulled out a can of Ponta and sat down, right at the net. She followed suit. Suddenly, a hard object hit her head. "Ite…" It was another can of Ponta. She smiled, a light blush coming to her cheeks. Somehow the Ponta he gave her always tasted better than the ones she bought for herself.

"Ano… Ryoma-kun…" Sakuno asked after a while.

He turned his head towards her.

"Um… maybe… maybe we don't have to just play tennis when we're together?" she asked, mustering up courage. "We could… do other stuff?"

"What other stuff is there to do besides tennis?"

"Ah…" She stared at the Ponta between her hands. "I-I guess you're right…"

_Meanwhile in the bushes…_

"Oh my god, is Echizen really THAT DENSE?" Momoshiro exclaimed.

"Momo! Be quiet!" Kikumaru said, shushing the second year.

"But I feel sorry for Ryuzaki! She at least GETS IT! He doesn't understand anything!"

"I know! Ochibi…" Kikumaru made a face. "He's so clueless!"

"We need to help him somehow…" Momoshiro grumbled. "It won't be easy with him being THIS dense."

"At least we have it easy…" Kikumaru said. When Momoshiro looked at him curiously, he grinned. "We don't have it as bad as Fujiko and Akane-chan. _They_ have to deal with Tezuka and Oshiro-chan."

"Oh yeah…"

"You two are pathetic," Akane's voice suddenly came, making both of them jump. "A whole hotel full of all the facilities you could ever _want_, and all you two do is spy on the freshmen?"

"Um… yes?"

She stared at them silently, before saying, "Move over then, will you? You're taking up all the room."

"HA!"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Have you seen Momoshiro-chan?" Reina asked Kimiko. The latter was sitting at a computer, happily downloading music and burning it all into a new CD. Reina swiped the headset off of her pink hair and repeated her question.

"No! Gimme that back!" Kimiko practically bounced upwards as she grabbed the giant headset and shoved it back over her ears. "I'm in the middle of something! Don't disturb me!"

"Okay…" '_Damn… Christmas is in three days…_'

"Wait!" Kimiko suddenly paused the track with a few taps on the keyboard. "I don't know where Sayaka-chan is now, but I can find out!" She quickly typed something that looked vaguely like a script or command term, and suddenly several video screens came up. They were all videos from around the hotel. Kimiko had opened the security camera database.

"Eto…" She blinked her big eyes. At least fifty video rectangles had filled the computer screen. "Man, this is a huge building!" She typed a few more keys and pulled up just ten. And then she double clicked one of them.

Reina opened her eyes in awe. She saw Sayaka sitting there talking with Izumi. The camera was positioned on the ceiling, so she saw the whole thing from above. "Wait… but how did you…"

Kimiko clicked something with her mouse. "Room 2109-A!" she announced cheerfully. "Good luck!"

"Ah… wha…"

But Kimiko had already placed the headphones over her ears. Reina closed her mouth, noting that she didn't want to be bothered, and left.

After a long while, Kimiko frowned and pulled up the video camera screens again. Something seemed strange a moment ago, but she couldn't place her finger on what it was. It seemed to catch her sight briefly, like a butterfly you see in the corner of your eye, but when you turn to see it, it isn't there.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Tezuka took off his glasses and rubbed the towel over his hair. Half the audience (women, mostly) had their eyes attached to him. He'd been playing with Kaidoh, and although the latter did manage to steal a few points from him with his famous snake shot, Tezuka still managed to seal it with his Zone.

"Good game, buchou." Kaidoh shook his hand very seriously. "Looks like I still need to work on some things."

Kaidoh was a hardworking person, Tezuka noted. He would make a fine captain someday. It _was_ a bit early to think of picking the next captain, but then again, Tezuka _was_ a senior. He shouldn't just be thinking of his own future, but the team's as well.

His arm twitched slightly, pains creeping up the side. He forced himself not to flinch and slowly put his right hand over it, as not to alert his team members.

"Your arm, Tezuka…"

He groaned inwardly. Of course Fuji would notice. "It's nothing."

Fuji, thank god, didn't question him about it. "By the way, Tezuka…" He smiled. "I've made an appointment for a massage downstairs at the spa, but after seeing you play I want to hit a few balls myself. Do you mind keeping my appointment for me?" He handed him a slip of paper. "I've already paid."

"I don't go to such things." Tezuka replied, handing the paper back.

Fuji didn't take it and pulled out his racket. "It might do you a bit of good. You look like you need to relax a bit anyways." He turned to the second year. "Kaidoh, are you too tired to play another round?"

His reply was to step right back onto the court.

Tezuka nodded with approval. Kaidoh was indeed a fine athlete. As he sat down on the bench, he felt a dull ache in his arms and legs and finally realized how tired he was. The second year was strong to have been able to drain _this_ much of his stamina. Come to think of it, the game did last a long time. He glanced down at the paper Fuji had handed him. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go down to the spa.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Echizen Ryoma had no idea how he got himself into this position.

Okay, that was a lie. He sort of knew. Vaguely. But that wasn't the point. The point was that it wasn't his fault.

He had been peacefully drinking Ponta with Ryuzaki when suddenly something yanked him into the bushes that were nearby. Yes, there were hedge-like bushes around the tennis court. It didn't make sense.

"ECHIZEN!" Momoshiro whispered loudly in his ear. "What the _hell_ are you doing?"

"Momo-senpai… whaa…" He couldn't even form a sentence. "Eiji-senpai… Ito-senpai…"

" "_WHAT'S THERE TO DO BESIDES TENNIS_?" " Momoshiro mimicked him and threw his hands up in exasperation. "Are you completely _insane_?"

"No… but I think _you_ are…"

"Echizen, you really aren't that good with girls, are you." Akane said it as a statement.

"Good with girls…? What are you talking about…"

"Oh, in case you haven't noticed, yes, Ryuzaki is a girl."

"Ochibi!" Kikumaru whined. "Ochibi is so dense!"

"There's plenty of other stuff to do." Akane put in. "Movies, walks—"

"GO. APOLOGIZE. NOW." Momoshiro roared and literally _tossed_ him right out the bushes.

As it turned out, Momoshiro had fairly good aim. Ryoma suddenly found himself falling on top of Sakuno and practically crushing her under his (sort of) weight.

"Ite…"

Ryoma opened his eyes and found himself staring into the largest eyes he'd ever seen.

Sakuno felt the hotness flood her cheeks. She was sure that her face must be giving off steam in the chilly air. _'Like a hot tomato,'_ she thought. '_Like a hot, baked tomato right from the oven… oh wait, that's a potato…_'

Why had he never noticed how large and brown her eyes were? Ryoma thought back and realized that he'd never really looked into them.

"R-r-r-ryoma-kun…"

Chocolate orbs framed with a dark fringe. Her eyes made her look so _feminine_… and innocent…

"R-ryoma-kun…"

Really, there was nothing unattractive about her. She was actually quite pretty and cute, especially when she looked like that.

"RYOMA-KUN, GET OFF!"

She pushed him off with all her might, flinging him into the air. '_Maybe helping her train her leg muscles was a mistake…_' He landed on the court, the air crushed from his lungs with a _whump_ noise.

"Geez, Echizen… when I said there are other things to do besides tennis, I didn't mean _that_…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Tezuka regretted his decision, and now it was too late.

It was all that stupid receptionist's fault. He tried to tell her that it was a mistake and turned to leave. But two people in aprons had grabbed him and forcibly pushed him into a white room with a small bed—or table, it looked more and more like an operation table to him now—with no consent from his part. His shirt was then practically ripped from him. (Scream fangirls, scream.) However, right before he was about to give the little workers in aprons some serious reprimanding, they scurried outside and locked, _locked_ the door.

Who locked the door to a spa room?

This was like a scene from a horror movie. Any second now, the aliens would enter and harvest his testicles or something.

The door opened. "Hi… I'll um, be your therapist for today…"

Turns out, he should've prayed for the aliens.

He found himself staring into a pair of familiar amber eyes.

"Oh…"

"_no._"

She ran out the door. Tezuka rubbed his temples. This was not just a coincidence. It couldn't be. No, somebody planned this, and that somebody was going to pay...

He would make Fuji run twelve laps around _Japan_ when he got back.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Reina-san?" Oishi said from across the hallway. He noticed her standing alongside the wall, music pulsing from behind the wall. "Kimura-san just called for dinner… are you coming?"

She nodded, looking a bit preoccupied. "I'll be right there…"

"Okay." He turned to leave.

"Oishi-san?" she suddenly called. "Would you please inform Izumi-san of the… dinner plans?" She inclined her head to the door she was standing by.

He gave her a strange look. "Ano… you can't tell her yourself?" He was aware that his words came off as a little rude, but he was perplexed. Reina was standing right next to the door. He didn't understand that she couldn't just walk in and tell Izumi herself. Noting that she wasn't moving, he walked down the hall towards her.

"So…" Oishi looked at her in a puzzled manner.

"I don't like mirrors." Reina replied simply. (For her to say something simply was quite an accomplishment, if you take into consideration her normally superfluous language.)

Oishi gave her another confused look. "But… to call Morioka-san out…"

"I don't like mirrors." she merely repeated.

He didn't question her further and opening the door. The blast of music hit him like a wall. Izumi turned it off upon seeing him open the door. When he walked in, he finally understood.

The whole room was a giant mirror. The walls were mirrors. The ceiling was a mirror. Everywhere he turned he could see himself again, watching his own eyes blinking, silently staring back. Reina... he understood why now. He'd known her for three years. He had observed the massive change she went through since the bubbly and outspoken 1st year first walked up the steps to Seigaku.

Of course she would be afraid of mirrors.

An eerie feeling crept over him.

To stare in a mirror and not see yourself staring back…

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I-I can't do this," Chiharu was saying to her manager outside the door. "This… this is my _classmate_. It… it would be weird."

"A good masseuse does not make her clients feel awkward."

"But… but…" Her cheeks filled with color. "I can't. I just can't."

"You will go back in there," the manager's tone became sharp. "You will go back in there and give your customer the treatment he paid for. That's the way things are done. You don't get to choose your clients."

"But… but…"

"If you don't like it, you can quit."

"I…" It was on the tip of her tongue to quit. But she thought of her father. Those weeks that he locked himself in his room and just stared at the picture of her mother… She swallowed. "Okay."

She walked back into the room, closing the door behind her. Her eyes were lowered to the ground—there was no way she could look at him. "Ano… well…"

Tezuka was buttoning up his shirt. He stood up briskly. "I am cancelling my appointment." He brushed past her on his way to the door.

"W-wait!" The words jumped out of her mouth. "Don't…" '_If he cancelled… Manager-san will think it's my fault… I could lose my job._' Then her brain registered how selfish her thoughts were. It wasn't fair to him. She bit her lip. "It's okay… you can leave if you want to."

He had paused at the door. He had heard the conversation between Chiharu and her manager a while ago. "It would affect your job." A statement, not a question.

"Eh?"

"If I left. It would affect your job."

She looked at him for a moment before admitting softly, "Y-yes…"

"How long does an appointment usually last?"

"F-forty minutes."

He sat down on the carpeted floor.

"T-tezuka-san?"

"If I stay for forty minutes, they will never know."

'_He's… he's going to stay? For me…?_' Warmth crept up her neck and filled her cheeks. "Thank you…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Of course, just sitting in the same room as him was… awkward. They'd been at a stalemate of silence for so long that they'd forgotten what it had used to be like to converse with one another. At least, if what they had before could even be called conversation. She traced her toe in the carpeted floor.

"This is your job here?"

She jumped a little as his voice finally broke the silence and seized the opportunity. "Yes," she said, nodding enthusiastically. "Suzume-chan's mother owns several of the beauty parlors in town, so I usually work my winters there too."

A nod, followed by silence.

And more silence.

The wind blew through the curtains and they billowed upwards, silky sheets flowing. Rays of sunlight were revealed through the gaps. Tezuka lifted his hand to shield his eyes, only to experience a throbbing pain jolt down the whole length of his arm. He cringed slightly, his hand reaching for it. The ache only spread, intensifying.

"Tezuka-san…?" Chiharu looked concerned, reaching for him. "Are you…?"

"It's nothing." he managed to say through gritted teeth, trying to breathe through the pain. It was aching so much. Why, why now? Why, in front of one of the only people he refused to look weak for… Suddenly, he felt a light pressure on his arm. The pain washed away from that point of pressure, as if the stream of life flowed from there. The ache faded away quickly. He breathed more easily, basking in the relief, before turning to his arm.

To his surprise, Chiharu had both her hands against his arm. "Is that better?"

"…yes," he said, stunned. "…what are you doing?"

"It's a bit of what I learned…" she said shyly. "I actually have no idea what I'm doing. Something about pressure points?"

He watched as she gently shifted the pressure in her fingers. It was alleviating the pain entirely. "Reina is the best at biology. You could ask her, provided being able to understand her."

She giggled a little. '_So he _does _have a sense of humor…_'

He continued to observe her. She seemed so at ease, doing something like this. Suddenly, she caught his eye and looked down again. He didn't understand why she kept doing that. "Do you… get a lot of clients?"

She paused thoughtfully. "Sometimes."

He nodded, then asked, "A lot of male clients?"

Another thoughtful pause. "No, actually, you're the first."

'_Fuji__'s fault._'

Chiharu wondered if she just imagined it. She didn't want to get her hopes up. But it seemed that after her last answer, the muscles in Tezuka's arm relaxed slightly.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Fuji."

"What?" The tensai smiled innocently, like he had done nothing wrong. However, Tezuka was not going to tolerate that.

"You—"

"I thought it would _help_," Fuji emphasized, before Tezuka could start reprimanding him. "You haven't spoken to her in months. Didn't you start talking again? Didn't you have a good time?"

Tezuka stopped for a moment, thinking.

"I thought so," Fuji said with a satisfied smirk.

Suddenly, they both turned to look behind them.

"I thought… someone was there."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_After dinner…_

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"The food was so good, nya!" Kikumaru let his fork fall with a clatter onto his china plate and resisted the urge to lap up the remaining caramel syrup on his plate.

"I know!" Kimiko licked the chocolate off her spoon. "It was the best!"

"Perfect…" Kawamura declared.

The waiter appeared before them. "Would any of you like to order some more dessert?"

"I can't believe I'm going to say no to this…" Momoshiro said regretfully. "But I'm full."

"Seriously?" Sayaka raised her eyebrows and grinned at Suzume. "Hats off to you, Kimura, you managed to fill that bottomless pit he has for a stomach."

Kaidoh snorted, but in the middle it became a yawn.

"I don't want to move after this…" Akane said. "I'm so full…" She sank into the back of her chair, her stomach feeling like a heavy Christmas pudding. Some of her ginger bangs got into her eyes, but she was too lazy to brush them away. She just felt… slow. "I really don't want to do anything…

"We don't have to," Suzume said. "We could go to the onsen, you know, the one at the hotel? I haven't been to it yet."

"Isn't it outdoors?" Oishi said. "Won't it be cold?" He gestured towards the window, where a light flurry of snow was descending from the sky.

"No, silly!" Kimiko said, suddenly bouncing in her chair again. "Outdoor onsens are really warm! I think it's the steam or something. You don't feel cold at all! Oh, oh, let's go! Please? Please?" She put her hands together and made her eyes go as wide as they would. "Puhwease?"

"Just so I have this right…" Aiko said. "An onsen is a hot spring, right?"

"Yup yup!"

"I've never been to one before," she admitted.

"Then we should go!" Kimiko giggled and turned to the boys. "Are you guys coming too?"

Oishi glanced at all of them. "Well… I guess we don't have anything to do…"

"I'll just be leaving…" Ryoma tried to take off, but Kikumaru caught his collar.

"Okay! So if I knock on the little bamboo wall that separates the guys' hot spring and girls' hot spring, tell me if you can hear it, kay?" She was so bubbly that it almost irritated everyone else. Normally, they found it cute, but right now they just wanted to sit in the peace and quiet. Momoshiro was quite tempted to throw the ice bucket over her.

"Kimiko, try to be more mature." Akane rolled her eyes.

Chiharu turned to Izumi, who was being quiet. "Are you going to come?" she asked kindly.

"I guess…" Izumi frowned. "Ne, Chiharu-san… I only bring this up because it's been bothering me, but do you feel like someone's been following you?"

"_Following_?" Chiharu looked taken aback. "Well, I've been working all day… so no… but are you sure?"

"Did you feel it too?" Fuji asked her. "I feel that someone's been watching us, but every time I try to look, they disappear."

"Well actually, I think there _is_ someone." Kimiko said, her tone suddenly serious. In fact, Akane rolled her eyes again at the sudden change in tone. "I was playing around with the security camera database—"

"You WHAT?"

"—and in all the places that you guys were, there were two other stranger people that seemed to go where you guys did. They pretty much spied on you all." She recalled the two dark-haired people that had stood outside the glass door, watching Izumi dance. She remembered the two that sat on the bleachers, watching the game between Kaidoh and Tezuka. The same two watching Reina talk to Sayaka. Watching Aiko train. Watching Kawamura cook. Watching Oishi read. And then the eerie feeling of someone being in the same room as her.

"You mean we're being _stalked_?"

"Maybe…" Sakuno said timidly. "Maybe we should tell the hotel security?" But no one paid attention to her.

"There are people spying on us?"

"Dude, if I ever find out who it is…"

"It's Mizuki Hajime from St. Rudolph," Inui stated simply.

It took a minute, then the boys exploded in outrage.

"WHAT?"

"YOU _knew?_"

"You didn't ask." He brushed off all the comments.

"What's _he _doing here?" Fuji asked, his eyes smiling but his voice steely.

"The data, obviously." Inui replied. "That's why all of you should be on your guard. We're playing St. Rudolph soon..."

"Yuuta-kun's school…" Izumi said with a glance at Fuji. He nodded, still smiling.

"I can't believe he _followed _us all the way here," Momoshiro said, sinking in the back of his chair. "That guy is a world class freak."

"Maybe he didn't follow us?" Kawamura asked. "Maybe he's just here on vacation?"

"Taka-san is too kind," Kikumaru said. "That creepy guy followed us."

"He had a girl with him." Kimiko added. "Mizuki, that is..."

"Oh lord!" Momoshiro resisted banging his head against the table. "There are two of him?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

While the talk of being stalked by Mizuki (although the girls had no idea who this was) was exciting, the frenzied conversation drained out their energy. (Except for Kimiko, who is an energy ball itself.) Full stomachs tend to put one in a very slow and lazy mood. The conversation eventually pittered out, and they headed to the hot springs with no further complaint.

The girls and boys parted ways and went into the respective changing rooms and onsens. All of them gasped at the size of the changing room. It was huge, done up in a cozy (but traditional) woody style. When they stepped barefoot onto the wooden floors, they felt heat seeping up the soles from the floor.

"Floor-heating…" Aiko said, smiling because she knew the Japanese term for it. She moved her feet from side to side.

Chiharu smiled at her. Aiko really was a Japanese girl at heart.

"Suzume, they don't mind your tattoos?" Akane asked as Suzume pulled off her shirt. Onsens sometimes refused entry to people with tattoos. Everyone's eyes travelled down the length of Suzume's body. Although she did have several tattoos, they were all… _tastefully_ done. The sparrow on her collar bone was made up of black lines, making it seem elegant. She had a pair of butterfly wings on her right shoulder and an angel's wing on her left ankle, also done completely in black lines—abstract, almost. Her tattoos were more artful than frightening.

"My mom owns the place. I can do whatever I want." Suzume replied, pulling a towel around her.

"It smells… nice, in here…" Sakuno noted, inhaling the sweet scent. Incense and potpourri, probably. She wished there was a perfume in this smell.

"Um… do any of you know anything about this… Mizuki-san?" Chiharu asked. "I think I've heard of him…"

"He's the manager of the St. Rudolph team," Reina said. "A data specialist."

Something tugged at the back of Izumi's mind. The conversation she had at Fuji's house was swirling in her mind, bits and pieces floating around. "Wait… St. Rudolph... He's in charge of the girl team, then."

"I wonder how good they are…" Aiko mused.

"Yuuta-kun said that they play dirty."

"He said that about his own school?" Suzume snorted. "Way to piss in your own pool." She headed for the doors. "I'm going on ahead."

"They play dirty?" Sayaka asked. She shook her head. "That's so Mizuki's style."

"Eh?"

"Well, last year when Take-nii was playing them, he called timeouts and stuff in order to dampen my brother's spirit, especially when he was all confident and focused." She shrugged. "Not necessarily illegal, but pretty dirty stuff, don't you think?"

"Yeah…"

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." Suzume stepped right back into the changing room, clutching the white towel around her body. They all stared at her in surprise—hadn't she already gone ahead to the hot spring?

"What is it, Suzume-chan?" Chiharu asked.

"It's a f***** _mixed _onsen!"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Meanwhile, the boys had entered the spring. It was already evening, and the sky was as dark as ebony. The steam that drifted upwards traced shapes in the air, caressing their faces with soft, warm, wispy fingers.

"Do you think the girls are going to come out?" Momoshiro asked, looking at the changing room door. "I mean…" He laughed uncomfortably. "the only women that go to mixed onsens these days are old grannies." He was right, after all, the only women in the spring right now were well above 70 years old.

"They'd probably change and leave." Kawamura said with a nod.

A loud yell broke through the air.

"IT'S A F***** MIXED ONSEN!"

Pause.

"Yeah, they probably won't come out…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Is that a problem?" Izumi replied mildly.

"What do you mean, 'is that a problem'?" Sayaka also turned on Izumi.

Akane chuckled. "I would've pegged you as the most conservative of us all, Izumi, but you seem perfectly accepting of the situation," Then she remembered her background. "Oh. Being all traditional and that, you've probably been to a lot of mixed onsens…"

"Screw this." Suzume began pulling her clothes back from the little wooden closet. "There is no way I'm getting in that water now."

"I wonder if the boys dared to go out there…" Akane said to herself. She went outside to peek around the door. She drew in a breath. "Guys… it's beautiful out here… you have to see this."

"I saw plenty," Suzume retorted, still fishing out her clothes. "Enough to make my eyes bleed.

Akane returned. "I think we should go in."

Everyone else nearly dropped what they were holding. "NO!"

"The water should be nearly opaque…" Izumi pointed out lightly. "Due to the mineral content, it's a milky color. Besides, it's night."

"And…" Akane said. "It's lit up by candles and like two outdoor lamps that are really dim. You can't see anything below the water, trust me. And it's such a beautiful environment! They even have candles floating on the water!"

"You're the one that wanted to," Suzume said in an accusing tone to Kimiko. "You go."

The pink headed girl thought for a minute, then said cheerfully, "Okay then! What?" she said when they all looked at her strangely. "It's like Akane-buchou and senpai said: It's not like they can _see_ anything…"

"They probably won't be _looking_ either." Akane said. "Besides, there's not much to look at."

Sayaka threw her mini shampoo bottle at her.

"I'll go." Aiko suddenly said. "I've wanted to go to an onsen, and mixed ones are the most traditional… right?"

"Yes. The earliest ones were mixed. Bathing with strangers is a cultural experience." Reina told her.

"You sound like a commercial." Suzume scoffed off Reina's show of knowledge. "Why don't you say that _after_ you've done it?"

"I think I will."

"What?"

"What if there are perverts?" Sayaka asked.

"Are you really worried about perverts when you have Suzume around?"

After about another ten minutes of convincing, they finally got Suzume and Sayaka to join them, insisting that 'they needed Suzume to feel safe'. Then, the group turned to the last two girls, who had just sat there blushing in the corner.

"Don't waste time on these two," Akane told them, grabbing Chiharu's arm. Sayaka grabbed Sakuno's. They then proceeded to literally drag them outside. The two victims, being the passive type, did not fight back. (Although cries of "Ah…Ano… Wait…" did come from their lips)

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

There was a sudden hush as they ventured outside, the crowd obviously astonished at seeing nine _young_ girls at a mixed onsen. Then the whispering began. From what they could see, most (if not all) of the people at the onsen were male. Aiko, in particular, attracted a lot of attention due to her dark skin.

Of course, now that all the girls were lined outside the changing room, there was the issue of getting _in_ to the water. Several of the more respectable male bathers, including the entire Seigaku team, turned their heads politely away. However, there were still a few that had their eyes fixed onto them.

Izumi walked nonchalantly to the edge and turned around, so her back was facing the pool. She then slipped one leg into the pool, her other hand unraveling the towel at the same time. In a smooth movement, she was in the pool, and not one inch of skin more than necessary had been revealed. It was obvious that she'd done this before, many times.

Shaking out the towel and holding it up, she provided a screen for the other girls to enter, one after another. They folded the towels neatly and left them on the side of the pool. The water came just above their chests, barely touching the feathers of Suzume's tattooed sparrow. For Kimiko and Sakuno, however, it came up to their collarbones.

"See, now isn't this nice…" Akane murmured.

The atmosphere _was_ spectacular. Hot water poured out of stone dragon mouths. Scented candles floated around them, like fireflies skimming the water. The flickering light shrouded the hot spring in a dreamy glow. Soft music was playing in the air. Shadows of the leafy plants were cast on the glistening white-ish water. Looking up at the night sky, they could see stars scattered across the indigo blanket.

"Senpai, would you stop blushing?" Suzume said to Chiharu. "You too," she said, turning to Sakuno. She jerked her head towards the groups of male bathers. "We don't have to go anywhere near those guys. We're not going to move."

"Actually, I think we have to. Move, that is…" Aiko said slowly. She pointed out the line of males that were waiting to get in the pool that had materialized out of nowhere. "We're sort of blocking them." The place they were standing was the entrance, where there were no stones fencing the edge of the pool.

They walked (floated) towards the center.

"We should find somewhere to sit…" Sayaka suggested, looking around. "_Oh_…"She realized why the male bathers were in patches along the edges of the pool. The edge of the pool was not entirely irregular, as she had previously thought. Rather, it was made up of small arcs, semicircles, in which around 20 people could fit in one semicircle. There were little seats underwater seats there, where the water was shallower, as well as flat stones that you could lean on. From what she could see, all of the semicircles were taken. "Maybe we should just stand…"

"Yeah…" everyone else agreed.

There were splashes behind them as other bathers entered the pool. "So…" A couple of them approached the girls, their eyes hungry. "I guess you ladies have no where to sit, either. Mind if we join you?"

"We do not luxuriate in your ubiety, for are quite vituperable and animadversion would be your comeuppance." Reina said. That should scare them off.

Instead, one of them groaned. "I love the way you talk." This made her feel quite unsettled.

"Actually," Akane said, grabbing onto Suzume's fist underwater before the she could throw the punch. "We're going to sit with our friends." She led the girls away, in what direction, she didn't care, just away from these people. However, the few bathers (three or four of them, she wasn't concentrating enough to tell) followed them. One of them pulled close to Aiko.

"Say, you look new to an onsen…" he said, looking at her skin. "I could teach what the _best_ part of an onsen is…"

Suddenly a male voice cut through the air. "Please stop that." Kawamura joined them. While his tone was polite and not enough to scare anyone, his muscles certainly did. One glance at his sculpted biceps and the bathers that had been trying to bother the girls left. (ran)

"You should come sit with us…" Kawamura said, smiling. "It's safer. And we'd all treat you with respect."

"Sure…" Akane said. "Better with them than with those perverts." she said in response to the glares the girls were giving her.

"Hi!" Kimiko waved excitedly at them as they approached. The boys scooted along the edge to make room for them. She took her seat, the water coming up to her chin now. It was a funny image, a floating head with a strawberry top.

"We weren't expecting you to come out…" Fuji said as the other girls took their seats. Chiharu was the last to sit. The other girls made it so that there was no where for her to sit other than the place right next to Tezuka. She went cherry red, but sat down.

"Honestly, I wasn't either…" Sayaka said, reproachfully looking at Akane and Izumi. "I'm still getting over the shock that I'm essentially in the same bathtub as my _brother_."

"Bathtub?" Momoshiro snorted, glancing at the place around them. "That's a big bathtub."

"Regardless. You're naked and I'm naked. This feels awkward."

Sakuno and Chiharu both blushed at the word "naked", to which Suzume scoffed at and said, "It's not even a dirty word, and you guys are acting as if it was something scandalous."

"Speaking of scandalous…" Fuji said. "I heard Echizen was in a very compromising position with someone this morning…"

Sakuno almost dunked her head underwater.

"_Really_? Do tell?"

"No! Echizen, you're too young!"

"Momo-senpai's fault." Ryoma said immediately. No blushing for him.

"Ah…" He spared the freshman. "So what did everyone else do today?"

"I learned a sushi cooking technique from one of the chefs…" Kawamura said. "It's a type of spicy tuna roll. I'm thinking of introducing it to the restaurant."

"What about you, Kaidoh-kun?" Kimiko asked the quiet second year.

"Training." he grunted.

She giggled.

They leaned backwards, resting their heads and shoulders against the rock. Some closed their eyes. The following conversation that flowed around them was casual, as they lazily joined in with a sentence or two.

As Chiharu shifted her position, her hand briefly touched his hand underwater, and she jerked it away as if it shocked her, her heart pounding. That reminded her. "Is-is your arm okay?" she asked softly.

He nodded. "Actually… I'd prefer if you did not mention what happened this afternoon to anyone else." There was no need to alarm the team that his arm was having pains again. They were probably just growing pains anyways.

"Okay. I understand. I won't say anything! I promise!" she said quickly, the words coming out in short bursts due to her nervousness. Her hand was tugging on her blue-ish curls, which shone like a blue topaz in the faded light.

He seemed to smile briefly. "Thank you…"

"No problem. I probably wouldn't have told in the first place." Surely her heart was creating waves by the way it was hammering in her chest.

"No, I mean… thank you for this afternoon."

"Oh! Umm…" She tried to say something about that, but no words would come. The color did though. The color came and filled up her cheeks until she had to look away.

Izumi finally met the blue eyes upon her, feeling another tug from within when eye contact was made. "Why… are you looking at me like that?" she asked quietly, questioning the intense gaze the tensai was giving her.

He smiled. "Nothing. I just wish I had my camera."

"I think the staff will decorate the mansion for Christmas…" Suzume was saying. She hooked a strand of her violet-red hair behind her ear. "And there's a small street with stores nearby if you want to get anything…"

"Are we really going to do the 'give each person a present' thing?" Momoshiro asked. "Because that's a little much. I brought presents for some of you, but not all…"

"But… but…" Kimiko pouted. She liked her own idea. "Wouldn't you feel guilty if I gave you a gift and you didn't give me one?"

"Well… yeah… that's true…"

Kikumaru sat up with the air of someone who had just been struck by an idea. "Let's do Secret Santas!"

"That's not a bad idea…" Oishi said thoughtfully. "That way we each buy a gift, and each get one."

"It's fun to guess as well…" Aiko put in, managing to keep up with the conversation.

"What if I already bought gifts?" Momoshiro asked.

"Well, I guess we're just going to accept the fact that the people we bought gifts for may not give us one in return." Akane said. "I mean, to buy seventeen gifts is just… like you said, too much…"

"No it's not." Kimiko whined, but everyone ignored her. Except Chiharu, who patted her head sympathetically. After all, it was hard to take a floating pink head seriously.

They expected to wait until they got back to the mansion to draw names, but Suzume called over a maid. "Could you bring us a piece of paper and a pen?

"Oh, and some sake (rice wine)." Momoshiro added.

"Sake?" asked Reina.

"Drinking age?" asked Inui.

"I just want to have a _little_…" Momoshiro said defensively.

"Drinking is forbidden on school trips." Tezuka said firmly. The maid's eyes wandered between them, unsure of what to do. "However seeing as this is a recreational trip rather than a school activity, I will allow this." He stared at everyone else in turn. "Only one cup each."

The sake arrived on a wooden tray that the maid set right on the water. She handed the pen and paper to Suzume. "Here, you do it," she said, giving it to Reina. "Senpai is good at handwriting."

"Suzume is dexterous at inventing excuses for being lackadaisical…" Reina said back. She took the paper anyways.

Suzume blinked unconcernedly. "I'll pretend I understood that."

"She's said you're good at creating excuses to cover up your laziness."

Reina scribbled down the names in her perfect handwriting and carefully tore the paper. She put the pieces on the tray, shuffling them around with her fingers. "Everybody take one."

The tray was passed around while they each took one and a cup of sake. "Oops, got myself." Kimiko said, grinning, and switched her slip of paper with another.

"Aw man…" Kikumaru scratched his head. "I got a hard person…"

Once they memorized their person, they put the slip of paper back onto the tray. The alcohol felt like it was puffing out in their mouths, like little fireballs being extinguished. The warm sensation left in their mouths was comforting. Silence hung over them as they sat there quietly and took sips of sake, enjoying the sensation.

"Well, isn't this interesting…?" A new voice drifted into their ears, causing all of them to sit up. "All of Seigaku here…"

None other than Mizuki Hajime walked over. He didn't sit; none of them had moved for him anyways. "Tezuka." He offered his hand to the captain, who took it. Manners were manners. Even if you were being stalked by this crazy manager.

"Allow me to introduce captain of our girl's team, Hina." A brown haired girl with a ponytail shook Tezuka's hand. She surveyed all of them. "Mizuki, I thought you said they were strong!" she said in a high shrilly voice.

"You don't think they look strong?" Mizuki asked deliberately, clearly hoping to hear something bad about them.

"Well, I don't know about the guys, but the girls…" Her voice was the kind that made them all want to tear out her voice box. "The girls look like they can't even handle middle schoolers."

"Excuse me?" Sayaka said angrily.

About five people latched onto Suzume at this point, to prevent Hina for mortal peril.

"In fact, these two _look_ like middle schoolers…" She pointed at Sakuno and Kimiko. "And this one looks like something dragged off the street." She pointed to Suzume this time.

"Get out and leave us alone." Suzume said, surprisingly calmly and coolly.

"You can't make us leave." The girl stuck up her chin defiantly. "We're guests here."

"For a couple data specialists, you sure didn't do your research properly. I _own_ this place. And if you don't get out of my face right now, I will have security eject you off the premises. _Without _your clothes."

That was enough. The two scurried back from where they came from.

There was a long pause following their departure. Finally, Kaidoh, who had been silent for almost the whole time, opened his mouth and growled:

"We'll _crush_ St. Rudolph."

And everyone nodded.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Seventeen

**A/N**: Okay, I don't know when I'll update next, but it hopefully won't be five-six months later hahaha. The next chapter will be very interesting, I assure you. Sorry that St. Rudolph is going to end up as the villain school.

Christmas is in the air… as well as drama, deceit, presents and mistletoe. The new girl that the members met plays extremely dirty _off_ the courts, and even Inui is stumped. Meanwhile, Secret Santas are underway as well as individual gifts... Perhaps the first hint of love will blossom.

Thanks to all my reviewers and readers. Not a single review was unread or unappreciated. You guys make me happy.

If you want more, **REVIEW**. Or else I may go on a long hiatus again... muahahahaha...


	18. All I Want For Christmas

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

Sorry for that HUGE hiatus! This is a HUGE chapter to make up for it. My longest chapter yet.

Thanks to all my reviewers! When I got more reviews yelling at me to hurry up and update, they became my motivation.

**To RECAP: **The last chapter was filled with hot spring goodness and we met Mizuki and his evil… female counterpart.

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Eighteen: All I Want For Christmas**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Jingle bells, jingle bells…"

The happy holiday tune was coming out of many speakers, all positioned on the street. The street itself was decorated handsomely in green and red, with little lights twinkling merrily and ribbons hanging off the streetlights. Several girls walked down the road, their arms laden with shopping bags. The one in short pink hair was skipping, humming along with the tune.

"I don't get how the boys do it; we've been down here _every day_ for shopping, and I haven't seen them down here _once_…" a tall, black-haired girl said. "Maybe they didn't get us anything."

"I'm sure they did," the ginger haired one said. "They can be tactless, as all boys can—" All of them nodded vigorously. "—but they aren't _mean_…"

"Hey, we better catch that bus if we want to be home in time for dinner," one of them said. "The next one isn't for four hours."

They quickened their pace towards the bus stop, each smiling with the knowledge that Christmas was in a few days.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Eiji-senpai, that smells amazing!" Sayaka said as she strolled into the kitchen where a delicious chocolate-y aroma drifted up to welcome her.

"Hee hee, I baked a cake for dinner!" He jumped up and down and waved his oven mitts at her, looking—unsurprisingly—like a cat. Christmas spirit was in the air. The chefs in the kitchen were already making Christmas dinner, and the maids had decorated the entire mansion with ornaments of red and gold and strings of fairy lights. Kikumaru frowned. "But I still need to finish up the frosting… Want to help?"

"Um… sure," she replied, tilting her head curiously. She prodded the spongy layers with a spoon. "So what do I do?"

He taught her to lift up the spongy layer with a spatula and spread the buttercream neatly in between. While she was working on the second layer, he made sugar spun roses that he used to garnish the cake with. Powdered sugar was scattered across the top and the sides were iced with white drops. It looked like a picture from a magazine.

"Hahaha! Sayaka-chan, you have a smudge of chocolate right here!" Kikumaru pointed his finger at her cheek.

She studied her reflection in the back of a tin bowl. "Oh yeah?" Grabbing the spatula from the bowl of icing, she swiped it across his cheek, giving him a smudge like hers. "Join the club."

"Hey!" A small food fight followed, involving powdered sugar in their hair and cherries jubilee sticking to their fingers. "Eiji-senpai, you look like an old man!" Sayaka said, pointing to the whipped cream on his chin. She laughed as he threatened to throw the cake at her.

"Oh my god..." Momoshiro said as he walked in. "Sayaka's… _cooking_? Eiji-senpai, did you call 911 yet?" He glanced at his twin in the apron again. "Or a bomb squad?"

"What are you talking about?" She put her hands on her hips defensively. "I can _so_ cook!"

"No you can't," Momoshiro retorted. "Remember the Pie Incident?"

"Oh. Yeah…"

"Or the Spaghetti Incident?"

"Hey! That was completely different!"

"How so?"

"Nothing blew up _that_ time!"

"My, my, it seems active in here…" A certain smiling tensai entered the room, followed by a scowling freshman. The scowl disappeared for a moment when the aroma reached his nose and his eyes lost their focus. "Whoa…"

"Good, right?" Sayaka demanded with a glance at her brother. "I contributed!"

Eiji scratched his chin thoughtfully, momentarily forgetting that he had some icing there. He licked the icing off his fingers. "I was going to bake a cake for my Secret Santa actually, but I found something even better!"

"Oh yeah, Secret Santa…" Sayaka said. "Dude, I got the hardest person ever… I'm not even sure that they'll like my gift at all…" She punched her brother on the shoulder. "Why couldn't it have been you? Get you a few hamburger coupons and you'll be as happy as a nut."

"Well my person wasn't easy either!" Momoshiro complained.

"You got me a gift, right?" Sayaka asked him, somewhat forcefully.

"Yeah, of course."

"I got Sayaka-chan a gift too!" Kikumaru said happily.

"I don't think anyone only got a gift for their Secret Santa…" Fuji suggested. "I know Ryuzaki-chan bought gifts for everyone because she asked me to help her carry them." He picked up a ball from his pocket. "Eiji, want to play a little before dinner?"

"Yay!"

"I'll watch! I need to learn from Kikumaru-senpai anyways," Sayaka followed them out.

As the door closed, Ryoma turned to Momoshiro and uttered two words.

"Oh… shit."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So did you find a good present for your Secret Santa, Eiji?" Fuji asked as they rallied a ball in between them casually. He aimed to the right of Kikumaru, forcing him to run a little to keep up.

Kikumaru swung his racket before replying. "I don't know! I got someone really really _really_ hard, so I have no idea! What if they don't like it! What if they…!" He flailed around for a bit, but being Kikumaru, was still able to return the ball.

Fuji seemed amused that his friend was capable of playing tennis while having a panic attack. "Why? I'm sure they'll like it anyways. Besides, it's the thought that counts."

"But what if they think it's stupid? Or what if I didn't spend enough money on it or something?" Kikumaru said, nearly missing the ball. "What if she thinks I'm cheap?"

Fuji's smile widened. "So you got a girl…"

His ears went slightly pink. "Well, it'd be _easier _if I got a guy, because we know each other better, right? Gah!" He dove and missed the ball completely. Brushing his knees off, he got up and observed his friend, complaining, "Mou… Fuji isn't worried at all. Fuji probably got someone easy…" Though he doubted his friend would freak out over anything.

Meanwhile, in the courts next to them, Reina and Akane were rallying a ball back and forth, although neither of them seemed to be trying.

"So the two that still remain a mystery to us…" Inui was saying as he wrote in his notebook. "Akane-san and Reina-san."

"How is that true?" Kawamura asked. "We've seen them play before, and we're watching them right now."

Inui glanced at Kawamura. "Taka-san, can you tell me their styles then?"

Kawamura thought for a minute. "Well, Ito-san… she…" His head jerked slightly in surprise. "No, I can't."

"Exactly." Inui proclaimed with a satisfied air. "They haven't been matched against strong opponents yet. They haven't had to show us their own tennis. That's what makes them useful… and dangerous."

Momoshiro was listening, watching the two girls play. "Hey, if you ask me, I think Kimura is still the most dangerous out of us all," he said unexpectedly, turning around. "There's still more to her style than we know."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Chiharu carried her present to the living room and slid it under the tree, smiling as she did so. The presents under the tree were growing; a pile of gold ribbons and festive wrapping paper. Her excitement was also growing. She was sure that tonight was going to be very memorable. The tree itself was decorated beautifully, with sparkling ornaments and cranberries adorning its splendor.

"Chiharu-senpai!" Sayaka entered the room, holding a gift in her arms as well. She grinned at her senpai as she too, put the present under the tree. "For your Secret Santa?"

"Ah… yes."

"Same," She made a face. "Except I got someone I don't know very well. I don't know if they'll like what I got them."

"I'm sure they will, no matter what," she reassured her. "And it helps us get to know one another better, right?"

"Really?" Sayaka asked.

"Well, you had to do a bit of research to find out what your "gift-ee" liked or wanted, right?"

"Yeah… I guess so…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Reina hated drawing.

No, that was a lie. She loved drawing. She loved making copies of what she saw with her own eyes. She enjoyed it. It was just… She hated drawing stuff that _wouldn't stay still_.

For example, Kikumaru.

She and Akane had finished their practice game, (with Akane winning), and now she had settled on the bench beside the courts with her sketchpad open. Her pencil was darting back and forth across the page as she tried with all her might to catch _some_ part of Kikumaru's acrobatics onto paper. She _had to_ watch him perform a single movement over and over, so many times that she felt like she could go up there and do it herself, before she sketch out a vague impression of it. And that was only a rough outline. From there on was where her data came into play.

Using her data, she had to guess how he performed the movement, how he managed to twist his body in such ways that it seemed gravity defying. She used her knowledge of his stamina, of his muscle structure, of basic physics, aerodynamic formulae and biology in order to literally "fill in the blanks" and sketch a more solid drawing. She used Newton's laws in order to predict the way the ball would move. It wasn't just drawing. It was cold, hard calculations.

Most people thought that her data was accurate. This was a severe yet common misconception. Her data needed constant updating. Every time she saw the movement being performed again, she was mentally making changes to her drawings and data that she would fill in later. Maybe Inui's data was 99 percent accurate when put into action, but hers was not. Her logical mind told her that her data was around 60 percent accurate.

She tested out her theories and her data through trial and error. Yet now she was beginning to wonder, what if her opponent was so strong that trial and error would mean losing the match? What if it cost them a place in the tournament? She vowed to work harder on her data collection.

But right now, she needed a break. She only had a few pages left in her sketchbook anyways, and she didn't want to waste them making imprecise drawings. Packing up her racket, she swung the bag over her shoulder and walked back inside the hotel, where the warmth of electrical heaters greeted her.

The hotel interior was a spectacular sight. Fairy lights glistened from every corner, and golden globes hung from the ceiling. Springs of fir decorated the corners, giving of a refreshing scent. Velvet ribbons were tied to the handles of all the doorways and wreaths hung on the doors. She walked past all of this and headed towards the lounge.

"Tezuka-buchou?" He was sitting on one of the sofas. A glance at the towel around his neck told her that he just finished working out. He greeted her with a nod.

It looked like he didn't have anything to do either… so why not? "Tezuka-buchou…" Reina asked hesitantly, "Do you play chess?"

His eyebrows raised in surprise at her question. "I'm… passable," he replied.

Reina's lips curved up into a smile in anticipation of a challenge. If Tezuka said he was passable, it most certainly meant that he was nearly a master.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ryoma pulled his cap down and glanced left and right before entering the store. He would _not_ let him self be caught going into one of these stores. He would _not. _The store was filled with cutesy girly items such as bracelets, earrings, hair ornaments and stuffed animals. If his seniors found out that he was in such a store, they would tease him to no end.

"Hello there, may I help you?" The store clerk asked, cheerfully greeting him.

He pulled the cap even lower. "I'm just… having a look around."

"Is there anything you have in mind?"

"No." He edged away from the store clerk, but she followed him persistently.

"All of these are bargain price," She gestured towards the back. "Are you buying something for your girlfriend, then?"

"_NO._" His voice came out more forcefully then he meant it to be, and it surprised him. Well, it did stop the annoying store clerk from pestering him.

"Um… okay… well I'll just be at the counter if you need me." She quickly scurried back to her counter, unnerved by the irritable midget.

After browsing around for a while and getting frustrated at finding nothing, he called out, "Hey. Do you have anything tennis related?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"See, you have to flex your arm first, instead of later when you actually hit the ball. This helps build up power." Kawamura was explaining patiently.

Aiko nodded and tried again, hitting the ball against the wall.

"You're still flexing late. All the power goes on your backswing and not onto the ball itself, you see?" He guided her arm again. "Watch me."

He picked up his racket, and suddenly a fire blazed into his eyes. "Ora ora, I'm going to teach you the Hadokyuu even if I have to stay up ALL NIGHT!" He tossed up a ball and swung with all his might. "DORYAAAAAAA!"

The ball hit the wall with a tremendous force. When it fell from the cement, she saw that a clear mark had been made. Next to her pitiful attempts, it was like a crater being compared with a rabbit hole.

She clenched the ball and prepared to try again. '_I'm not giving up. It's the only way I can help Kimiko win, to help _our_ doubles. I need to have an ace up my sleeve._'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Checkmate."

Tezuka was in a slight shock.

No one, _no one_ had beaten him in chess before.

Other than his grandfather, but he didn't count because he was the one that taught him the game, right?

Reina lifted her finger to push her glasses up her nose, the lenses flashing. "My game, Tezuka-buchou."

She wasn't smiling, but she seemed genuinely happy. It was different from when she was drawing or when she was singing. Those were things that she was good at. This was something that she truly enjoyed. Tezuka didn't recall seeing her _this_ happy.

Besides, of course, on the court.

She would be formidable on the courts as well, he decided. With that kind of logical mind, she would be a brilliant strategist. The courts and the chessboard—those were part of Reina's territory.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane-san!" Fuji entered the giant living room, walking towards her. "I wanted to ask about—" He suddenly stopped when she began making shushing movements at him, indicating the sleeping Izumi next to her.

"She's sleeping?" He said in a lowered voice. It was early afternoon. Izumi was curled up onto the sofa, her head resting against Akane's leg.

Akane smiled and replied quietly. "She's tired. She says she never gets a good night's sleep at hospitals. I guess now she's making up for it. Don't worry, I'll wake her up before dinner."

Fuji thought back to what she said before… " '_I don't like hospitals…_'" She'd been released quite a while ago. Maybe she had to go back recently?

Akane laughed softly. "I told her it must be hard to go to sleep when your room is next to a bishonen's!"

A knot inside him tightened, but he kept his smiling composure. "Ah… you're referring to Rikkaidai's captain, right?"

She nodded. "Yup. Seems like they've become a bit close. He gave her that rose, you know?"

"I know."

She observed him for a moment. "Fuji…" But she decided not to voice her question.

He heard it, though. The question she meant to ask but didn't pass her lips. And he wished it was as simple as that yes or no question. But it didn't describe how he actually felt. He was confused; she opened up to specific others but kept him at bay. And yet, the more mystifying she remained, the more he was fascinated by her. Jealous? Maybe, but not in the sense that others assumed it was in. It was more that he was envious of the people who got to see beneath her veil of mystery.

Did he? Perhaps he did. It wasn't that simple.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

White flakes were falling down from outside, brushing against the window.

"Hey, it's snowing, it's snowing!" Kikumaru began dancing around. He grabbed the nearest person to him—Momoshiro—and started to pull him outside onto the lawn. "C'mon, let's go play in the snow!" The door opened and a rush of cold air came in.

"COLD COLD COLD!" Momoshiro cried, leaping back. "It's too cold now, Eiji-senpai!"

Kikumaru ran out without him. A second later he threw a snowball at him, hitting him on the nose. The cold weather was forgotten immediately. "You'll pay for that, Eiji-senpai!" Momoshiro yelled, dashing after him. He packed snow together with his hands and tossed it over, only to get hit in the back with another snowball. He yelped and turned around.

"Watch your back, bro." Sayaka grinned.

"You two are ganging up on me!" Momoshiro whined as Sayaka and Kikumaru exchanged a hi-five.

A silent shadow sneaked up behind them. "You look like you need some help, Momoshiro-san." Reina lifted her head, glasses flashing.

"Whaaa?" Momoshiro gave her a strange look. " 'Call me 'Momo'! And Reina-senpai in a snowball fight…? Isn't that a little out of your element?"

Reina calmly moved towards Kikumaru and reached above him, tugging at a tree branch. A pile of snow was promptly deposited on his head. "AAAAAH!"

Momoshiro collapsed in a fit of laughter.

"Oiiiiii-shiiii!" Kikumaru exploded out of the snow that covered him and packed another few snowballs, which he threw at his doubles partner. Poor Oishi could only shield his head as a flurry came down onto him. After escaping the blizzard, he managed to land a few on Kikumaru himself.

At this point, Momoshiro had somehow provoked Kaidoh enough that the two were engaged in a snowball fight to the death. Out of the blue, something hopped onto Momoshiro's back, almost causing him to fall forward.

"Hee hee, Kimi-chan sneak attack!" She shoved a wad of snow down his shirt.

"COLD!" Momoshiro yelped again and tossed her off his back. She giggled, waving her arms and legs about. "Hey look, I'm making snow angel—" She didn't get to finish before a snowball hit her in the mouth, effectively shushing her.

"If I walk out here right now…" Inui was saying as he walked towards the crowd. "There will be a 90 percent chance that I'll get hit by a snowball right about…"

_BAM._

"…now."

"Hey." Sayaka said, handing Sakuno a snowball. "Throw this at him." She indicated the freshman that was standing at the edge.

"EHHH?" she said. "I can't do that!"

"Why?" Sayaka laughed. "It's only a snowball fight! It's fun!"

"Huh… but Ryoma-kun doesn't seem to like these games…" Sakuno said doubtfully.

"He's a kid. He'll like them no matter what."

Sakuno was still doubtful, but since Sayaka sounded so sure she decided to try and threw the snowball at him with all her might. To be nice, she called out, "Look out, Ryoma-kun!" Her aim must've improved because it hit him right in the face. He fell over backwards.

"Ite…" Ryoma rubbed his cheek.

"Oh no! Ryoma-kun, are you okay?" She ran towards him. "Daijoubu?"

"…that hurt…"

"Gomenasai! I didn't mean..."

Suddenly he smirked and shoved a fistful of snow into her face. It was unpacked, so it didn't hurt, but it surprised her.

"Eep!"

"Mada Mada Dane, Ryuzaki…"

He turned around to see two of his senpais glaring at him.

"You don't pick on girls like that, Echizen…" Momoshiro said.

"That's right, Ochibi is being mean…" Kikumaru added. "Get him, Momo!"

And a pile of snowballs found their mark. It didn't take long to bury someone that was only 151 cm.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

As the skies grew darker, the temperature dropped and all of them headed inside for hot chocolate. They sipped at their drinks, casual chatter drifting between them, before heading off to their individual activities once more.

Inui was wandering around the halls, muttering to himself. Momoshiro watched him walk back and forth for a while. "Oi, Inui-senpai, what's wrong?"

"Nothing! Nothing." He fidgeted for a while, clearly uncomfortable before muttering some more. "I seem to have misplaced my data book. This is horrible."

"That _is_ horrible!" Momoshiro exclaimed. He knew exactly how long Inui had been recording that data. Furthermore, he knew that all his weaknesses were recorded in that little green book. "Inui-senpai, you have to find it somehow!"

"You don't think I know that?" Inui muttered some more. "It has to be somewhere. I set it down when we were in the snowball fight and then…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Christmas dinner was more like a banquet feast then a dinner. They dined on salad tossed in raspberry vinaigrette, followed by an enormous roast chicken stuffed with potatoes and broccoli. The skin was golden and speckled with pepper that had been ground in. The smell was enough to make their mouths water. There was also a huge selection of food including roast beef, steak and kidney pie, bouillabaisse, and sautéed greens, to name a few. Their plates were then whisked away and they feasted on chocolate gateau, ice cream sundaes, cranberry gelatin, and many other desserts.

"Man, I'm probably going to gain 20 pounds from this dinner…" Sayaka said. "But whatever. Pass the rice pudding, please."

"It's all very delicious…" Akane said. "It's hard to choose what to eat… You kind of have to choose all of them…"

Momoshiro leaned back and let out a burp. " 'Scuse me…" he said while the rest of them giggled. "I'm so full…"

"Wait, save your stomachs!" Kikumaru said out of the blue, waving his arms about.

"Er… a little late for that, Eiji…" Oishi told him, rubbing his own, which actually felt rounder.

Suddenly the lights were shut off, and a dull glow entered the room, coming from the candles of a cake. "Happy Birthday to you…" Seventeen expectant faces turned towards Ryoma.

"What? Did you think we'd forgotten?" Kikumaru grinned. "I baked the cake for you. Happy Birthday, Ochibi."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ryoma blew out the candles, feeling oddly touched. Normally, he celebrated his birthday with his parents. He wasn't a big fan of parties or anything. But the cake was very nice of them. He honestly thought they'd forgotten.

Everyone applauded as the candles went out. All of them offered their congratulations as they divided up the cake. As Ryoma took a bite, he had to compliment Kikumaru on the cake. It was truly delicious. The 3rd year beamed with pride.

"Thank you, everyone…" Ryoma said, smiling as he glanced around.

Inui suddenly disrupted the atmosphere by yelling out loudly and pointing a quivering finger at his laptop screen.

"What the… Inui…"

He didn't speak and just stared in shock as his screen.

"What does the screen say? Read it aloud!"

**Chubbly_bubbly007: Don't bother looking for your notebook. I have it.**

Kawamura leaned over. " 'Don't bother looking for your notebook. I have it.'" He glanced at Inui. "Who on earth are you talking to?"

**Chubbly_bubbly007: Rather naïve of you to leave it unattended, don't you think?**

"Chubbly_bubbly007," he replied. "I have no idea. But she has my data book!" His hands were in his hair. "I can't do anything without it! I can't make Inui Juice recipes, I can't collect data… and…" Lightning seemed to flash through the room. "The data booklet has all your weakness written down!"

"That bastard stole it then?"

"That's horrible!"

"Who… are… you…" Akane enunciated as she typed the words into the computer. A moment later the computer pinged and she looked up.

**Chubbly_bubbly007: Hina.**

"Do we know someone named… Hina?"

A second later all of them realized and leapt up. "AH! MIZUKI'S FEMALE COUNTERPART!"

**Chubbly_bubbly007: Shouldn't you have guessed? Who **_**else**_** could've achieved the feat of stealing Inui's notebook?**

"That is dirty…" Kikumaru complained. "Stealing Inui's notebook to get our weaknesses."

"It proves how weak they are…" Izumi said quietly. "They have to resort to these kinds of methods in order to gain an advantage…"

"Morioka's right," Tezuka said. "The only thing we can do is prove Inui's data wrong by increasing our training amount and overcoming our weaknesses."

"Tell her to give him his notebook back or she's dead." Suzume said, cracking her knuckles. "I haven't gone to the dojo in a while. I could use the extra practice."

"Give… back… the… notebook…" Akane typed into the computer. A second later it pinged with news of a new reply. Akane stared at the screen. "She says she already sent it back with a maid…"

"LIES!" Inui cried, still in distress.

"But not after she uploaded the data onto her computer. Oh wow. That b*tch."

"Akane-san!" Oishi reprimanded. "Languange!"

Kikumaru laughed. "I dare you to type that to her, Akane-chan!"

"Kikumaru." Tezuka said sharply.

He giggled nervously. "It was a joke, Tezuka."

"Is there a person named Inui-san…?" A maid asked timidly. "I have a package for him."

Inui tore the paper off the package to reveal the green notebook beneath. After confirming that it was, in fact, his notebook, he proceeded to kiss the cover vehemently, much to the amusement of the rest of the crowd.

"But she still has… our weaknesses all in front of her…" Aiko said slowly. "Right?

**Chubbly_bubbly007: Seems like that girl Oshiro really has feelings for Tezuka. I wonder what other schools would pay for this information…**

"It's not just tennis data…" Inui said, horrified. "It's personal data… Everything about you guys… everything I observed… I wrote in the book…"

Akane glanced at the screen, and for the second time uttered the words. "That b*tch."

"What did she say?" Suzume asked, moving towards it. Akane minimized the screen before she could see. If she saw, there was no telling how far she would go to avenge Chiharu. On the other hand, now she was extremely curious as to what was written in Inui's notebook. Were theories and rumors also written in there? Were her feelings about Oishi written in there? He was right. That book was dangerous in the wrong hands.

Kimiko sat there thoughtfully, before walking over and taking the computer within her hands. She unwrapped a pink lollipop and shoved it in her mouth. Her eyes became focused in that instant. She took a deep breath and suddenly began typing furiously, like a squirrel on sugar high. All of the members watched her, stunned.

"What in the world are you saying to her…?"

"Huh?" Kimiko asked, not even looking up. "I'm not saying anything."

Several of them moved to peer over her shoulder. "Then what… are you doing…" There was a huge block of text on the computer.

"I'm writing a script for a computer worm."

"A computer _what?_"

She looked up, smiling cheerfully. "A worm! You know, a computer infection program?"

"You're writing a _virus_?"

"No! A worm!"

"What the hell's the difference?"

"Viruses need the person to actually open the program or infected file to work. She might suspect something if I write one of those. Worms travel on their own, do what they're programmed to do, and then disappear. They're so cool." Kimiko grinned.

"Wait, you can't infect her computer!" Oishi cried. "That'll be stooping to her level!"

"Do you think I would do a thing like that?" She made innocent puppy eyes at Oishi.

He sweatdropped. '_Well, I would've never thought that you were a hacker…_' "Then what are you doing?"

She made a victory sign next to her face. "It's easy. I'm basically programming the worm to delete any files with containing the words Inui Sadaharu, Tezuka Kunimitsu, etc on them. All I need to do is fix the mutations strings." She typed another paragraph of script in a flash. "That way, everything from Inui's notebook will be deleted, right? She probably typed it up onto a single word document file anyways. And if deletes some of the data _she_ actually collected herself… well, don't you guys think she deserves it?"

Most of them murmured in agreement.

"How are you going to put the worm into action though?" Momoshiro asked.

"Oh, that's easy. She chatted with Inui, right? I'll use her chat account info to hack into her IP address and gain access to her computer. Then all I need to do is click go, and let the worm do its thing."

"Whoa…" All of them were dumbstruck.

"Wait," She frowned, pressing a few more keys. "She has a hidden IP. That's annoying."

"Well…" Oishi said, slightly relieved. "Maybe we should just stop trying to-"

Practically everyone else ignored him and crowded around Kimiko. "Does that mean you can't hack it?"

"I can't… but I know someone who can." Kimiko flipped out her cell phone with the seriousness of a secret agent. She dialed a number quickly and put it to her ear. "AHOY, Miyuki-senpai!" Her cutesy tone was once again a contrast to her serious attitude beforehand, and all of them sweatdropped once more. However, this time they tolerated her sudden change in attitude. Even Akane was able to resist the urge to roll her eyes. After all, she _was_ helping them.

"Miyuki-senpai…?" Reina repeated quietly.

Kimiko continued talking animatedly into the receiver. "Yeah, if you could send a tracer to her account? Chubbly_bubbly007?" She paused for a second, then covered the mouthpiece and turned to the rest of them. "It'll come back with an IP address in about five minutes."

Reina hesitated. "Kimiko, when you said Miyuki-senpai…"

"Oh! She's the one that taught me this stuff! She used to live in the neighborhood!" She grinned. "She was a real techie."

Reina swallowed. "Yeah. I know. That's my sister you're talking to."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Your _sister?_"

Reina nodded silently.

"But I don't…" Kimiko broke off, eyes wide. "I don't understand _how_—"

"I don't want to talk about it," Reina stated simply.

"But maybe Miyuki-senpai…"

"Just execute the worm."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Well Echizen…" Oishi said as they were walking back to the living room. The data files had been deleted, and all of them were slightly tired from the excitement. "I'm really sorry that your mini birthday celebration had so much action in it…"

"It's nothing," Echizen said with an offhand shrug.

"R-ryoma-kun… Happy Birthday…" Sakuno said as she caught up with him. She wanted to say it to him personally.

"Sankyuu."

Suddenly they heard muffled laughter coming from behind them, followed by several catcalls.

Sakuno had no idea what was going on. She looked back at her friends and senpais. "What?" It's not as if she _did_ anything to him. All she did was catch up to him, right?

They just kept laughing behind their hands.

Ryoma was slightly annoyed. He really didn't enjoy being the subject of laughter, especially when there was no reason apparent.

Fuji smiled and pointed above them. "Neh, you two know what has to happen under a sprig of mistletoe, right?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"As expected of Fuji-senpai!" Momoshiro said, cackling. "Nice one!"

"Well…" Sayaka said with a grin. "I guess you two gotta do what you gotta do…"

"Just kiss her!" Kimiko said, giggling. "You know you want to…"

Sakuno felt like a furnace had been lit under her skin. She didn't know a person could feel this mortified. There should be a law against blushing this much. Really, she could stop traffic now. "Eto…"

Ryoma, being Ryoma, kept his cool. "Yadda."

"Echizen, you're insulting Sakuno here…" Akane pointed out.

"You don't have to kiss her on the lips!" Kikumaru added. "Anywhere is fine! Just a quick peck!"

"Can you get a move on so we can go back and continue celebrating?" Suzume said. "Really. Be a man."

Ryoma stuck his nose in the air and ignored all of them. "Yadda. Yadda. Yadda."

"Echizen, stop being mean…" Momoshiro scolded.

"Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Yadd—" Suddenly he froze, words lost in his throat.

Sakuno had leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

Everyone around them oohed and Kikumaru whistled. Momoshiro laughed. "I didn't think Ryuzaki would have more initiative than Echizen, but hey."

Sakuno retreated quickly, unable to look at anyone. She wanted to see his reaction, but she couldn't quite bring herself to lift her head. '_I shouldn't have done that!_' Her mind was flooded with worries all of a sudden. '_What if things become awkward between us? Mou… now he knows how I feel…_'

Ryoma lowered his cap to hide the spots of color that appeared on his cheeks. His senpais (mostly Kikumaru and Momoshiro) began teasing him immediately.

"Ah well, it's a start," Fuji said with a satisfied smile.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

For the next hour or so, all of them sat in the living room and sang Christmas carols. Reina seated herself at the piano, playing the tunes that the group was all too familiar with. At one point, Fuji secretly told everyone to stop singing so that they could all hear their captain sing. Tezuka had a very nice singing voice actually, although it sure didn't sound nice to Fuji when it was giving him 20 laps. All of them enjoyed themselves quite thoroughly.

However the thing that happened next was the highlight of the evening.

"Neh, Fuji-senpai, Tezuka-buchou…" Ryoma said with a smirk. "You two know what has to happen under a sprig of mistletoe, right?"

All of them looked upwards, and sure enough, there was a cluster of white berries dangling dangerously from a piece of tape on the ceiling. When Ryoma had set it up, none of them knew. Several of them snickered from behind their palms.

Fuji smiled and turned towards the captain. "Well then, Tezuka…"

He bristled evidently. "NO."

And all of them laughed.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Finally, it was time for secret Santas.

"Will you _look_ at all those presents under the tree?" Akane said, pointing to the clutter of colorful boxes. "That's quite a haul."

"Let's get started! Let's get started!" Kimiko began bouncing up and down with excitement, as she usually did.

"Well then," Oishi proceeded to hand out all the gifts, noting the addressees. "On a count of three, everyone open their presents."

"One…"

"Two…"

"THREE!"

There was the tearing of wrapping paper, followed by shouts of, "Whoa!" "Cool!" "What the hell is this?"

Of course, some people had delayed reactions. For example Chiharu, who was a very dainty gift unwrapper. She peeled the wrapping paper off slowly in that irritating way that made you want to grab it from her and rip it off yourself. When she finally did, she stared at the DVD box set in her hands. Akane looked over her shoulder.

"_Buffy the Vampire Slayer?_ Who gave you that?"

"Fuji-san did," She tilted her head, puzzled. It was a nice gift, as she never watched the series, but… _'He doesn't_ s_eem like a Buffy fan…_'

He chuckled upon seeing her open his gift. "You should watch it in Japanese dub. The voice actor for Buffy is very good."

"Oh really?" Akane asked, taking the DVD set out of her hands and flipping it over. "Who is the voice actor?" She scanned the list of names and suddenly grinned. In that instant it all became clear.

Character Voice Actor

Buffy Tezuka Chiharu

"Kimiko…" Izumi said, holding up a CD. "This is…"

"Hmm? Oh! I mixed a CD for you!" She held up her hand in a victory sign. "It has all kinds of tempos on it—fast, slow, 3/4, 4/4, you name it. It should help you in tennis! That way you can trap some other unsuspecting victim into your rhythm… although it better not be me!"

"Oh… thank you… I don't know what to say…" She felt genuinely touched. '_And here I thought she still bore a grudge against me because of our match…_'

Kimiko beamed.

Sakuno opened her present to find a set of pink wrist weights and ankle weights.

"Ryuzaki, what did you get?" Ryoma asked, looking over curiously.

She showed him the weights.

"Hmm…" He weighed them in his hand, smiling slightly. "It's a good present. Who gave them to you?"

"K-Kaidoh-senpai did…"

"Mamushi did?" Momoshiro said, joining them. "That's so like him."

"Ryoma-kun, what about you?" Sakuno asked.

He held out an envelope. Inside contained an all-you-can-eat sushi coupon and a voucher for a case of Ponta.

"Ah, from Kawamura-senpai?" Sakuno asked and he nodded.

Momoshiro showed them his present, which was a leather wallet from Akane.

"Well that's a practical gift," Sakuno said. "As expected from Akane-senpai."

"Hmm…" Ryoma said. "It better be filled with money to treat your kohai with."

"Oi! I'm not treating you!"

Aiko walked up to Momoshiro. "Arigato!" she said with a bow.

"Nice pronunciation, Aiko-senpai." Ryoma said in English. She had nailed that one word, it seemed. Her accent was now more of a lilt.

"It's because of this thing." Aiko said, holding up the translation device. She pressed a button and a tinny voice said, "Arigato!" She turned back to Momoshiro. "Really, thank you. It's a huge help."

He grinned. "No problem. It helps people like me too, who suck at English."

Meanwhile, other people were also enjoying their gifts.

Kikumaru and Kimiko were apparently in the middle of a war. Kikumaru was wielding a giant cat paw plushie (given to him by Izumi) and Kimiko was hitting him with an inflatable lollipop almost as tall as she was. (courtesy of Ryoma.)

Reina received a large, spiral bound sketchbook and two non-smudge erasers from Tezuka. She was admiring them. Tezuka, on the other hand, had begun reading the novel that Sayaka bought him.

Sayaka unwrapped a box to find a simple t-shirt inside. She laughed when she saw it.

**I'm Namazu-chan.**

**And imma CRUSH you.**

"Thanks, Kimura," she said. "I'll wear these in front of all our opponents."

"You better make sure you can live up to it first," Suzume taunted.

"What did you say?"

"Hey… it's Christmas Eve. Can't you two give it a rest?" Oishi said diplomatically.

"Suzume-chan!" Kikumaru bounded over, still holding the cat-paw.

"Senpai, who said you could call me Suzume-_chan_?"

"Kimura-chan!" he amended, missing her point. "Was my gift ok?" he asked anxiously.

Suzume pulled out the lighter from her pocket. There was a sparrow printed on the front. She pressed it so the flame appeared. "It's perfect, thanks."

He let out a breath. "Thank god…" Seeing his doubles partner, he bounded up to him. "Oishiii, what did you get? What did you get?"

"This…" He pulled out the picture frame that Chiharu had given him. Chiharu had already put in a picture of all of them together, taken after they'd won the district tournament.

"Whoa! We look so cool!" Kikumaru exclaimed. Then something else caught his eye. He fell back, pointing. "INUI! YOU GAVE TAKA-SAN A _GALLON_ OF INUI JUICE?"

Sure enough, there was a barrel with Inui's name on it in front of Kawamura. His eyebrow twitched as he managed to say, "Thank you… Inui…" He opened the barrel to find out exactly which juice. '_Aozu? Akazu? Vegetable? Special Deluxe gold power remix?_' Except when he opened the top of the barrel he found something else entirely. Stunned, he pulled out a set of new racket strings and grip tape.

"Wait, so what was the barrel for?"

Inui tapped his glasses. "It was… a joke."

There was a long pause.

Then several voices cried, "INUI MADE A _JOKE_?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"We should go to sleep soon. We still have Christmas Day tomorrow," Akane reminded them. She indicated the cluster still under the tree. "There's a lot of presents left to give, anyways."

"Tezuka, could you move a little?" Fuji said as he sat on the ground. Tezuka moved a little to the right to make room.

Fuji smiled, and Tezuka knew something was wrong. Instinctively, he looked upwards.

Akane hi-fived Fuji. "Good one, trapping _those_ two."

Taking secret pictures of them, he could handle. Forcing them into the same room, he could handle. Tricking him into an appointment with _her_, he could handle. But this? Tezuka would _not_ accept being trapped under the mistletoe with Chiharu.

Chiharu was blushing madly. Her heart was beating at an alarming rate; she could hear it in her ears. It felt like it was going to explode out of her chest. It was horribly embarrassing, and she hated Fuji and Akane for it. But a tiny tiny tiny part of her looked forward to it; a tiny tiny part of her was thankful. And that same tiny part was also hopeful, hopeful that maybe something good could happen.

"Now Tezuka…" Fuji said, mischievous smile in place. "You shouldn't have any protests about kissing Oshir—"

"I refuse."

His tone was so sharp that Fuji opened his eyes and Akane took an intake of breath. She turned to her friend and saw that Chiharu had gone pale, her eyes fixed on the floor.

"Maa… Tezuka…" Fuji tried again. "You shouldn't say tha—"

"I refuse."

Cold, clipped, perfectly Tezuka in every way… except it had never hurt this much before.

The captain got up and left the room, leaving a speechless silence in his wake. Chiharu bit her lip, eyes fixed on the very same spot. '_I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry._' It was really such a stupid thing to cry over, she told herself. He probably didn't want to embarrass himself or her. Tezuka was the type of person to refuse, besides, the tradition seemed too childish for him.

Yet somehow she found herself even more embarrassed than if he had honored the tradition. The whole world already knew how she felt about him. And now the whole world knew that he didn't feel the same way.

"Chiharu…" She felt Akane's concerned hands press against her shoulder.

"I'm fine…" she said, her voice cracking. "Really. It's… it's such a stupid thing…" She blinked her eyes furiously.

It had been stupid of her to hope. It really had been.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Tezuka…"

Tezuka turned around to see that the tensai had followed him into the kitchen. He set down the glass of water.

"Really, you didn't have to be so cruel back there…" Fuji said, smiling face ever present. "It wasn't that big of a deal, you know."

Tezuka remained silent.

"It's just a game. You sh—"

"No, Fuji," Tezuka said forcefully. "It is _not_ a game."

For the second time his words left the tensai speechless, and he drew in a breath in a sudden realization.

"…You really _do_ like her…"

Tezuka didn't reply.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

….

…

_The Next Day_

…..

….

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Kaidoh-kun!" Kimiko waved at the tall second year, beckoning him to come closer. It was still early in the morning, although she, Reina, Akane, Oishi and Momoshiro were all lounging around the living room. Kaidoh had clearly come in from his morning run.

Kimiko held out a box. "Merry Christmas!"

The box was the kind with a lid that just came off. Kaidoh sat down, setting the box in his lap. Slightly apprehensive, he lifted the lid. His eyes widened. Astonished, he lifted out the most adorable calico kitten, a ribbon tied around its neck.

"Mrow?"

"Awww…" resounded throughout the room.

The kitten began nuzzling Kaidoh's hand and occasionally lapping at it with its tiny pink tongue. "I… I… thank you…" was all he managed to say. His parents wouldn't mind if he showed up with a cat, would they? Worse come to worst, he'll hide it in his room. There was no way he was giving up this little bundle of fluff. The cat was purring under his hand, the cutest sound he'd ever heard.

"Where'd you get that, Marui?" Momoshiro asked.

"At the pet store in town! I couldn't resist!" Kimiko said. "Isn't she adorable?"

"She is pretty cute." Momoshiro agreed, leaning forward to pet the kitten.

"MEOW!" "ARG!" When he ducked back, there were three scratch marks on his left hand.

Kaidoh tickled the cat behind her ears. "I like this cat even more now…" As if reading his thoughts, the cat hissed at Momoshiro one more time and promptly began purring under Kaidoh's hand.

"Stupid cat…" Momoshiro muttered. "Suits Mamushi…"

Kaidoh lifted the cat so they were eye level. Now this was something he could play with all the time. He was always a bit jealous of Ryoma and his Himalayan cat. The kitten blinked her big black eyes at him. This was someone who he could tell all his worries too. He could already tell that they would become real soul mates—they both hated that Momoshiro-baka, didn't they? "Marui… really, thank you."

"Heh, what are you going to name her?" Akane asked.

Kaidoh thought for a minute before answering, "Miko."

Akane smiled and nodded, wondering if Kimiko realized that was half of her name.

Kaidoh felt like he received 10 Christmas's worth of gifts at once. He vowed to himself that from now on, he'd buy Marui a lollipop before every game.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Oishi-kun, here you go." Akane handed him a wrapped gift. It was small and flat. Oishi thanked her, staring at the gift with interest. He peeled off the wrapping paper to reveal a diary, with a leather cover and his name stamped in gold across the front. "Oh wow… thank you…"

"Because you have more worries than all of us," Akane explained. "You might need something to vent those worries into."

He laughed, blushing a little. "Yeah… I'll put this to good use…"

Akane fingered the pendant around her neck. Oishi, as it turned out, had been her Secret Santa. He'd given her a beautiful jade pendant that was supposedly a good luck charm. Myth had it that it prevented harm to the wearer. She liked the fact that he wanted her safe.

"You don't have to wear that if you don't like it…" Oishi said. He mistook her fiddling around with the pendant as distaste for it.

"What makes you think I don't like it?" She smiled again and he blushed.

Yes, she also liked making him blush. When he blushed, he was so cute...

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryuzaki."

"Eh?" Sakuno turned around to have a small package hit her on the forehead. She picked up the small box. "Wha-what is this?"

"Christmas," was all he said.

"Oh! Thank you!" She untied the ribbon and opened the box, gasping in delight. Inside was a small charm bracelet, with several charms attached already. There was a fuzzy tennis ball and a small racket, as well as a soda can. "It's so cute!" '_It's what we do together…_' She quickly fastened it onto her wrist, listening to the charms tinkle together, lifting it into the light. "Ryoma-kun… I love it."

A small smile appeared on his face. "That's good."

Abruptly, she leapt up. "I have to give you your present too!" She ran to the tree to fetch it before rushing back. Her feet stumbled over each other, and before she knew it, she was falling forwards.

Before _he_ knew it, he had extended out both arms, catching her.

She opened her eyes to find a pair of golden ones staring right into hers. '_Somehow we get into this situation a lot…_'

Ryoma felt something tug at him from inside, but passed it off and set her down nonchalantly. "Your balance isn't good enough."

"H..hai…"

"Here!" She gave the box to him. Ryoma tore it open, curious. When he was finished, he held up a video game.

"A tennis… video game?"

"Hai!" she replied enthusiastically. "For rainy days… or something. I thought if it's Ryoma-kun, he'd still want to do something with tennis involved right? I thought… " Her voice trailed off, suddenly fearful. "R-ryoma-kun doesn't like it?"

"Hmm…" Ryoma murmured thoughtfully, smile in place. "Let's play it sometime."

Sakuno's heart soared with delight when he said "_Let's_". '_Thank god the mistletoe didn't make anything awkward… he's acting like it never happened…_' But then again, she wasn't sure she wanted that.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Tezuka rinsed his face after another game with Kaidoh. The latter was still extremely persistent and this time, managed to take two games from him. Well, he could've played more seriously, he told himself as he walked inside the building. He still wanted to observe the practice match between Aiko and Suzume, so he decided to come back after getting a bottle of water from the mini-fridge.

As he walked down the hallway, Chiharu was walking towards the door. She had her racket in her hand and was dressed for a match. He wondered briefly who she was planning on playing. He waited for her to say hi so he could nod a reply.

Only… she didn't.

She walked by him as if he wasn't there. And Tezuka couldn't stop himself from watching her walk out the door, her back to him, and wondering what on earth he did wrong.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Izumi-san…"

She looked up in a mix of anticipation and dread. She recognized the velvety voice immediately.

"Fuji-san…" she replied, and he smiled.

"Could you come with me for a moment? I want to give you your Christmas present."

"Eh?" She glanced at the people around her. The lounge had quite a few people. Reina was playing chess with Inui (with the new chess set she received from him), Tezuka was still reading that historical fiction novel (she made a mental note to borrow it from him later), Chiharu and Akane were talking, the Momoshiro twins were arm wrestling, and Suzume was on the balcony, smoking a cigarette. Even if he gave his present to her now, she doubted anyone would notice. Still, she rose from her seat, grabbing the present meant for him, and followed him out into the hallway.

In the middle of the hallway, he stopped and turned around. "Here…" He handed her what appeared to be a rolled up piece of paper. "I thought you might like this…"

Feeling a little apprehensive, she took the rolled up paper and slid the rubber band off of it. As she unraveled it, she felt her breath escape her. Her heart appeared to have stopped for a moment.

It was her. He'd given her a poster… of herself.

She was dancing; he'd caught her in the middle of a spin. Her arms were outstretched, her hair whirling around her. He'd edited the lighting in the photo—the light coming from the window appeared to be a thick block, shining on her as if she were a heaven-sent angel. Speaking of which, he'd also added two wings onto her body, although they were so faint that it could've been a trick of the light.

Somehow, the colors were faint and blurred in a mystical manner. As she stared at herself, she could almost feel the music from that photograph, feel herself dancing…

She looked so free…

"It's… beautiful…" she breathed.

'_You're beautiful…_' But he didn't say it out loud. "You said you liked the other posters and prints I took… so I thought you'd like one of your own…"

"Thank you," she said. Drawn back into the present situation she immediately picked up her present from the ground and handed it over. "This is for you."

He was delightedly surprised. It was a cactus, a bow around the pot. He could see the bud of a blooming flower. He had two of the same species already, but that didn't matter. The fact that she'd noticed his collection of cacti impressed and touched him. Already he was planning to move some cacti out of the way on his windowsill to make room for this one. It was special to him. He reached out to take it from her.

Her hand jerked and she almost dropped it. Luckily, he had fast reflexes and took it before it fell.

She stared at her finger, a droplet of blood shining on her white skin. '_Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could I make the same mistake?_' The skin of her finger had split right along the cut she'd gotten from the rose's thorn. She kicked herself mentally. Déjà vu, anyone?

Fuji reached out to take her hand. In exactly the same manner as the one before him, he lifted her finger towards his lips.

She pulled away from him.

He opened his eyes, staring at her. '_I don't understand…_' Hadn't she let Yukimura do the same for her? Why was it him that she kept rejecting, kept pushing back? It troubled him.

Instead, she put her finger to her own lips and looked away.

It wasn't just Yukimura. She had told Tezuka things that she'd kept secret from him. Eiji too, seemed closer to her than he did. Even Yuuta was closer to her. Why was it just him? Did she hate him? No… that couldn't be it.

"Izumi-san…" He walked another step towards her. She took a step back, her eyes meeting his with sudden anxiety and fear. "I don't understand… You're always trying to avoid me…"

'_What?_' She moved back.

"Tezuka… Eiji… Yuuta… Even Rikkaidai's captain…" He let his gaze rest on her eyes. "You let them become closer to you. But whenever I try, you push me away."

Izumi hated confrontations. She especially hated confrontations with people with particularly powerful eyes. She remained silent and stepped away from him.

"Did I…" He moved even closer. "…do something wrong?"

She stepped back.

"Have I…" he continued. "…done something to hurt you?"

She felt cement against her back and realized that she'd backed into a wall. Yet he moved closer still. There was no where to run. "It's not… it's not like that…" she insisted. She raised a hand to her face; to cower under, to shield him from her, or maybe to put a barrier of flesh and bone between them.

He grasped her hand and held it in two of his. He could feel her hand shaking. "Do I really frighten you?"

"It's not like that…" she repeated. '_Why… why…_'

"Then what's it like?"

Her eyes were darting around, trying to find something to look at besides those blue eyes. From the beginning, she should've lied and said that she didn't realize she'd been avoiding him. She cursed herself for not thinking fast enough. "I…" Her answer was lost in her throat. She didn't even know what she was going to say.

Fuji turned her hand over in his. He could feel her pulse racing. "From the moment you had that outburst at Eiji, you've always fascinated me... Your air of mystery, your tennis style, your dance background… everything about you. Izumi-san…" He ran his fingers lightly over the back of her hand. "I just want to get to know you better… Like Tezuka and Eiji and Yuuta have done…" He fixed his eyes on hers again. "But you won't let me."

She couldn't speak.

He let go of her hand and moved a little backwards. "I've made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry."

She exhaled, slightly relieved. '_Why can't he just let things be?_' There were some things about her that no one should ever know. For a while, she just stood there in silence, not quite meeting his gaze. Finally, before she turned to go, she said, "Fuji-san."

"Hm?"

"Do you ever think… that if you got to know me better… I would cease to seem mysterious and thus… cease to fascinate you?"

It was such an odd question, and for a moment it left him speechless. Then he smiled, his eyes folding back into crescents. "No," he said. "I'm sure you would fascinate me to no end, Izumi-san."

Even if he didn't mean it like that, it was perhaps the most romantic thing anyone had said to her and in that moment, she felt her heart swaying. Then she snapped herself back to reality. '_Like two rivers… though their paths may overlap… in the end they each run their own course._' She couldn't let him get any closer to her; it was too… too dangerous. In the end, they'd both end up getting hurt.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno, it turned out to be.

Chiharu was playing Sakuno. She was playing a Sakuno weighed down by ankle weights and arm weights, that is. That worried him a bit. Tezuka approached Inui. "The weights…"

Inui nodded. "They're not a problem for some light practices. If the game gets too serious, I'll have her take them off."

Chiharu hit another shot, pinpointing it to the left corner. The minute her racket connected with the ball, Sakuno set out in a run. If there was one thing everyone else overlooked, it was that Sakuno had very good eyes.

She, Tezuka noticed, reacted almost as fast as Chiharu did.

Now it was just basic training that she needed. Sakuno was lacking in speed, power, strength, and stamina. Those things were needed in her development as a player. Considering the tough schools that they would meet in the prefectural tournaments—Yamabuki, Fudomine, and who could forget Hyotei—she would need to build up those skills, and _fast_.

The arm and leg weights were a start. Kaidoh had given her a very useful gift indeed.

They ended their game after about half an hour. Both of them headed over to the benches and put away their rackets. They were both panting a bit, the cold air making clouds in front of their mouths.

"Sakuno-chan, we should go inside before we catch cold," Chiharu said.

"Hai!"

Both of them left shortly after that. Tezuka couldn't help but think that Chiharu didn't even _look_ at him before she left.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"We should just let them sort this one out themselves, Fuji…" Akane said. "I'm tired of getting involved. I mean, we _just_ trapped them in a room together a couple days ago, and now _this_? Chiharu needs to be less sensitive, and Tezuka-buchou needs to be more considerate."

"I suppose so…" Fuji agreed. "But both of them are so hesitant. Speaking of which, Akane-san, why haven't you told Oishi how you feel?"

"Look, Fuji, if I wanted something to happen I would've caught him under the mistletoe myself," Akane said. "But I don't want anything to happen. Right now, I need to focus on our upcoming matches and keeping up my grades for college."

Even in love, Akane was as practical as ever.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Dammit!" Sayaka swore as she lost the arm wrestling match.

Momoshiro grinned. "Sorry sis! Guess I'm just too strong for you…"

Sayaka flexed her arms a bit. "Maybe I should work on some more muscle training… in case any of my opponents play power tennis, you know? What if Kawamura-senpai has a girl counterpart?"

"Namazu-chan, move over." Suzume took Momoshiro's hand from across the table, setting it into an arm wrestling position. "Let's go."

"One, two, three!"

Suzume lasted quite a while longer than Sayaka did, but in the end, she too lost to Momoshiro. "Not bad." Suzume told him.

Aiko, who was watching the whole time, spoke up: "Could I try?"

"Sure…" Momoshiro said as she took his hand firmly. "But I don't think any of you can—OW!"

She slammed his hand into the table with force. "I'm sorry, were you not ready?"

"No… I…" He was dazed. '_This girl… is strong…_'

"One, two, three!"

SLAM.

"Whoa… Aiko-senpai… that's kind of amazing…"

Aiko stared at her arm in surprise. So _this_ was the result of all the muscle training. Almost there, she told herself, almost there. The last few steps are the hardest, but it's worth it. It's worth it if it means becoming stronger than half of the boy regulars. Who knows, maybe she could finally do something useful on the doubles courts.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Later that evening, Reina walked over to the piano once more. She pressed her fingers into the notes, and her beautiful voice rang out in perfect tune:

"I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need

I don't care about the presents

Underneath the Christmas tree

I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know

Make my wish come true…."

And they all joined in.

"All I want for Christmas… is you…"

Momoshiro's arm was slung over his sister's shoulder, pulling them close. Suzume sat next to her, their knees touching slightly. Chiharu, Izumi and Akane linked their hands together. Fuji and Kikumaru sat next to them, with Kawamura kneeling in between. Tezuka and Oishi sat closest to the piano, with Inui on the bench next to Reina, observing her every move. Kimiko and Aiko, the doubles partners, knelt on the ground next to one another. Kaidoh and Miko (his new kitten and best friend) followed. Finally, Sakuno and Ryoma sat next to them, with Momoshiro constantly nudging Ryoma towards Sakuno. Sakuno leaned on Ryoma's shoulder just a little, making the circle complete.

Despite the drama, despite the blackmail, the arguments and unsaid apologies… it was a very Merry Christmas indeed.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"NOOOOOO! MY DATAAAAAAA!"

Yes, a very very Merry Christmas indeed.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter... what is it now? Eighteen. Whoa, that's a lot.

**A/N: **Not entirely satisfied with chapter. I'm sorry. DD:

Anyways, for those who feel like stalking me or something, I will be attending the University of Southern California in the fall.

But before that, I will try to cough out another 2 or 3 chapters.

Next chapter: What is a trip to the mountains without skiing? However, an innocent ski trip turns into a fight for life… and a cruel test of survival. Will Ryoma still be completely oblivious to Sakuno even when her life is threatened? Fear for her senpai's safety causes a panicked Suzume to finally reveal her past… and how her relationship with Chiharu came to be.

**REVIEW. I like reviews. Especially long reviews with lots of feedback.**


	19. Frostbitten Terror

**Disclaimer: **If I owned PoT, Fuji would be mine. And Tezuka. And Yukimura. And Sengoku. And Marui. And Atobe. But he's not.

**A/N: **I updated fast because of the amount of reviews I received in such a short time.** Thanks to all my reviewers!** I intend to ride out this writing wave for as long as possible before I go to college. Expect another chapter or maybe two before summer ends.

Reina's past is revealed a bit, as well as Suzume's relationship with Chiharu.

This chapter is dedicated to all the **new** readers that decided to review the last one. I admire your courage for starting a 140,000+ word count fanfiction.

That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the constant reviewers. Some of you guys have stuck with me for over two years. Thank you so much.

**To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Nineteen: Frostbitten Terror**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Skiing?"

That was the reaction that Suzume got after pitching the idea to them the next morning at breakfast.

"Or snowboarding. Whichever." She shrugged. "Appropriate, isn't it, considering that we pretty much own the mountains over there?" She gestured towards the mountains behind her, which were adorned with ski slopes and ski lifts. The weather was clear and the sun was high. It was a perfect day for sports.

Fuji chuckled. "Sounds interesting."

"Skiing, skiing!" Kikumaru said excitedly, his mouth half full with bread. "I want to go!"

"Skiing, skiing!" Kimiko said in the exact same way as Kikumaru did. The two exchanged a grin, teeth glinting in the sunlight.

And so it was decided. There was just the _slight_ task of waking up the Momoshiro twins and Echizen, who all seemed determined to sleep till noon. If fact, Momoshiro had been snoring so loudly that he served as a wakeup call for half of the others.

"Izumi-senpai isn't here either…" Kimiko noted, frowning. "Is she still sleeping?"

Kaidoh let out a scornful laugh. "Morioka-senpai was up at 6:00 am sharp."

"Yeah… about that…" Akane said with a disapproving shake of her head. "One of these days I'm going to slip her a sleeping pill. She needs more rest. After all, she's going to stress herself out the minute we go back to school."

"Yeah, that's because Tezuka…" Kikumaru grumbled. "…won't let go of the #1 seat in academics."

Tezuka lifted his eyes briefly when his name was mentioned. Seeing that it wasn't anything important, he went back to his place in the book and continued reading. He'd been up for a while, having finished breakfast hours before the rest of them.

Reina was finishing up a sketch of Ryoma and writing more notes in the margin.

"This is wrong." Inui said, pointing to one of her notes.

"Eh?"

"Echizen lowering his racket here isn't a habit; he has to do it because there's a lot of pressure on the racket at this point. Furthermore…" He frowned at something else. "His back-stepping isn't a fake habit. He does it unconsciously. That's an _actual_ habit."

Reina began crossing out things. "But it's so obvious…"

"It's obvious to _you_ because you notice things normal people don't. But people aren't all that complicated," Inui said. "Your 'artist's eye' is a double edged sword. Don't overanalyze."

She sighed and closed her book. She would come back to it later.

"You guys should put on some more clothes. It gets pretty chilly up here with the winds." Suzume said as she pulled a black sweater over her head. It was ripped at random intervals in the cloth, showing the electric blue shirt she had underneath. She also had black and yellow striped legwarmers and denim leggings. If the outfit was on someone else, it might've looked like they'd stepped right out of the circus, but instead Suzume looked like she stepped off the cover of some magazine.

"Sakuno-chan, could you go wake up Sayaka-chan?" Chiharu asked kindly. Sakuno rose to leave.

"You may awaken the remaining two concomitantly, if pertinent." Reina told her.

"Get the other two while you're at it," Akane translated before Sakuno asked. She turned to the black haired girl. "It's too early for vocab, Reina."

"It is never too proleptical for lexica," she replied defiantly.

Half of them groaned.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ryoma-kun, Momo-senpai, please wake up!" Sakuno rapped her knuckles on the door. There was no response. She pushed the door open a tiny crack, peeking inside cautiously in case one of them was in an indecent state. She blushed at the thought.

However, both of them were sound asleep under the covers, breathing loudly. She knocked louder on the door. "Please wake up!"

Momoshiro murmured something and stirred, but seemed to fall back into slumber.

She banged her fist on the door. Still no reaction.

Sakuno, despite being one of the most patient people on the planet, had a limit. Finally she flung open the door and walked in. "RYOMA-KUN! MOMO-SENPAI!"

Even Sayaka got up when she used _that_ voice. But Momoshiro let out a groan and ducked further under the covers. She decided to concentrate on the freshman, who at least left his ears open to harassment. Sakuno opened her mouth to yell, but paused when she caught sight of his face. His mouth was slightly open, a strand of hair flying upwards with every breath. Long lashes framed his closed eyes. The rise and fall of the covers indicated his easy breathing. He must be having a good dream, she thought. The image of sleeping Ryoma was heartwarming. Sakuno smiled and was once again reminded of how cute he was. Wait, she didn't have time for this. She took in a giant breath.

"RYOMA-KUN!"

He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like "Karupin?"

She giggled a little. "WAKE UP, PLEASE!"

"Hmm?" He seemed to have regained some sort of consciousness. "Five more minutes…"

"NO, everyone's waiting!"

"Five more minutes…" He waved his arm around as if swatting a pestering fly whose life's purpose appeared to be buzzing next to his ear.

"NO, you're getting up NOW." She felt like a mother. Or a wife. (_Blush_)

His hand came in contact with her face on one particularly vigorous wave. "Eek!"

Ryoma opened his eyes a little. "Haaa?" With slit-shaped eyes he barely managed to make out the shape of a person… with auburn hair… Suddenly he bolted up. "Ryuzaki?"

"R-ryoma-kun…" Somehow it'd been a lot easier to yell at a half awake Ryoma. "Ano… everyone's waiting… So please hurry!" She bowed and left quickly.

Ryuzaki was here while he was _sleeping_? Ryoma felt extremely self-conscious. He didn't even _know_ what he looked like when he was a sleep. He prayed he didn't look like the idiot that was sleeping on the other bed. There was a long trail of drool coming from his senpai's mouth and he was still snoring loudly. What if he, Ryoma, had a horrible sleeping image? What did she think of him if th—.

He caught himself mid-thought. Why did he care? "Che."

He tossed his pillow at Momoshiro and proceeded to get dressed.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Eat faster, you idiot!" Sayaka was yelling at her brother, who had moved on to his third serving. "You're making all of us wait!" She ignored the fact that Ryoma was also in the midst of shoveling his Japanese style breakfast into his mouth.

"I'm trying, alright? And Mamushi, can you keep your kitten away from the table?" Miko had hopped onto the table, stolen one of Momoshiro's meatballs, and was batting it back and forth between her little paws.

"Ora…" Kaidoh made a clicking noise with his tongue. Miko glanced at him, then back at the meatball. Finally, with an air of reluctance, she leapt into his lap.

Oishi smiled. "You two have bonded awfully quickly, huh…"

"Ah…" Kaidoh decided not to mention that he stayed up half the night playing with her. Cats were nocturnal animals. Who said vipers couldn't be?

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Here we are…" Suzume said in a bored tone, although her eyes were bright. It was clear that she was quite excited. They were standing in a giant ski equipment room that looked like it could hold 1000 people, no problem. However it was quite empty right now, due to the fact that the resort had not officially opened yet. Rows of colorful skis were hanging from the walls. "Snowboarders, over here, skiers over there."

Only Ryoma and Sayaka followed her. "Whoa…" Sayaka said with a slight frown. "We're the unpopular group, aren't we? What's wrong with snowboarding?"

"Skiing is easier, I think!" Kikumaru said, grinning.

"Hmm… so that's it…" Sayaka said with a smirk. "Is snowboarding too hardcore for you, bro?"

He bristled. "Hey! I just want to ski for once!"

"Really?" she continued to provoke him. "Are you scared?"

"Who're you calling scared?" Momoshiro said angrily. "Screw it, I'm snowboarding!"

Kaidoh made a scornful noise. "Pitiful…"

Staff at the counters handed out skis according to relative sizes. The crowd began strapping on their shoes and clipping equipment to their feet one by one.

"I'm sorry…" One of the workers was bowing to Kimiko, who looked irritated. "Please wait a moment. We'll need to fetch your skis especially from the storage room."

"What's wrong, Marui?" Kaidoh asked.

"They said that they didn't bring the children's skis out yet, so they don't have my size…" she told him huffily.

He couldn't help but laugh.

The snow crunched beneath their boots as they brought the skis out to the open slope. Chiharu tripped over her own skis at one point but Kawamura and Fuji both lent her a hand. "Thanks…" she murmured gratefully. And then her eyes met Tezuka's.

She looked away.

Kikumaru was still struggling with his own skis. "I hate putting these on! It's so hard!" Inui bent down and adjusted one of his boot straps, allowing his foot to slide in easily. "Whoa! That feels much better!"

Suzume passed out walkie-talkies. "The patrol groups aren't on duty yet because the resort hasn't officially opened. We'll need these to communicate, just in case. Do _NOT_ play with them." Here she sent a glare in Momoshiro's direction. He shivered.

"Mountain weather is unpredictable, so if there's a storm coming it's usually a 40 minute warning. That's why you guys need to keep your lines open." Suzume looked around. "I think that's all for the pep talk… anything I miss?"

"Wait." Oishi said, and everybody turned towards him. "All of us know how to ski, right?"

There was a general murmur of "yeah…"

"Ano…" Sakuno said timidly.

Everyone looked at her in surprise.

"Ryuzaki… you can't ski?" Momoshiro asked. His grin widened when she shook her head dumbly. "That's perfect! Well then, Echizen, you'll have to keep her company!" He shoved the younger boy over to her side.

Ryoma shot him an annoyed look. "Why does it have to be me?"

Momoshiro exchanged a grin with several others.

"Just BECAUSE." they said in unison.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Most of them jetted off the ski slope immediately. Since there were no difficulty differences between the paths, they were pretty much on the same mountain slope. It was soon made apparent who the better skiers of the group were.

Meanwhile, two people were still left at the top of the mountain.

"R-ryoma-kun!" Sakuno squeaked, traveling at about two centimeters per second. "How do I brake?"

He sighed. "Point your toes inwards. Make V with your skis." He could already hear laughter coming from below them, further down the mountain.

She slid to a stop, wobbling a little.

"Let's just go, Ryuzaki. It'll be fine." Although he appeared indifferent, he was quite eager to join the rest of them. He strapped on his snowboard and started down the ski course.

Sakuno gained a little momentum, but she braked nearly every five seconds, leaving a path of uneven snow behind her. Ryoma waited until she'd passed him and then zig-zagged behind her. "You can speed up by making your skis parallel!" he called out.

"Eh?" She did what he asked, her skis becoming two parallel lines. Suddenly she shot forward like a bullet. "Whaaaa!"

"Brake, Ryuzaki!" Ryoma called, sighing inwardly. "Slow down!" However they went on for a while and she still didn't slow down. Ryoma sped up at little in order to catch up. For kicks, he reached one of the jumps and sped off into the air, doing a 360 before landing perfectly next to her.

"Ryo-ryoma-kun is amazing…" was all she said. Her tone was sad. "I'm keeping Ryoma-kun from having fun…"

"Betsuni…" he replied. "Bend your knees more. You'll have more control…" He wasn't even looking at her.

Suddenly she felt like he was coaching her in tennis. Like that time he was coaching her and Tomo-chan. She really didn't like his coaching then. It made her feel guilty and… inferior. Like she wasn't good enough for him to devote proper attention. Maybe that was true, but she really didn't want to be with someone that made her feel that way right now. She had a lot on her mind. "Ryoma-kun, just go ahead!"

"It doesn't matter…" he replied. He was ahead of her now. "Hold your poles closer to your body…"

"Ryoma-kun! You obviously don't want to help and I think I can handle it! Just go on!"

He glanced behind in surprise at the anger in her voice. "Ryuzaki…"

She looked like she was going to whack him with her poles if he didn't leave her alone. One more glance behind his shoulder, and he sped up to join the others, rounding the next corner.

"Mou… I got mad on my own _again_…" Sakuno said to herself. She made a mental note to apologize later. Still, what Tezuka had said to her this morning had a lasting effect on her. He, in perfect Tezuka fashion, reminded her that prefectural tournaments would be beginning soon.

And in perfect Tezuka fashion, reminded her that she still wasn't good enough.

Tezuka fashion = "You're still not good enough."

Direct and blunt. She felt herself tear up a little at those harsh words. Yet she knew they were true, which is why today she was extra clumsy. She was wearing the wrist weights and ankle weights under all her gear.

Right now, couldn't handle Ryoma to remind in her perfect Ryoma fashion, how she still was "mada mada dane."

Her skis hit a bump and she screamed slightly in fear, but they regained their course easily, cutting through the snow like hot knives. Her heart was still thumping against her chest, and she tried to calm herself. She wondered how far ahead the others were. As the thought crossed her mind, the image of her running after the regulars also appeared before her eyes. Always lagging behind, always falling back… always watching their figures get smaller and smaller in the distance.

Sakuno suddenly felt very, very alone.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, Take-nii!" Sayaka hollered to her brother. "Can you do _this_?" She sped onto a ramp, then did a corkscrew twirl while holding on to one end of her snowboard.

"As expected of Sayaka-chan!" Kikumaru exclaimed. "Acrobatics!" He himself went onto a ski ramp and somersaulted with his skis up in the air.

"Eiji-senpai is better!" Sayaka said.

"Of course I am!" he said, laughing. He poked her with one of his poles.

"Hey!" Realizing that she didn't have anything to poke him with, she zig-zagged around him and jumped him, reaching for his hair. He laughed, ducking away. Suddenly, her snowboard got caught under his skis. Kikumaru stumbled and lost his balance, knocking her down like two dominoes. Instead of a pair of people gliding down the mountain smoothly, a tangled mass of arms and legs began rolling down the hill, bouncing at the occasional bump.

"Che…" Suzume herself leaped onto a ramp and performed a complicated series of twists and turns.

"Whoa…" Momoshiro said as he watched her, transfixed. He faced forward just in time to avoid a tree. "How'd you get so good at snowboarding?"

"Came every year. Practiced."

"So that's how it's done…" Fuji murmured as he went past on skis. From the ease at which he glided to and fro on the skis, it was obvious that Fuji was quite adept at skiing. "But I thought the resort was new?"

"We went to the mountains every year, I meant." Suzume clarified.

A figure in mid-jump suddenly blocked out the sun from behind them. All of them looked up. Ryoma twisted his body into almost the exact same series of turns that Suzume did, landing with only a tiny falter. The regulars just _stared, _awestruck. He smirked. "It was unexpectedly simple."

Suzume gave a skeptical snort, but she was smiling. "Echizen, is there anything you can't do?"

"Where's Ryuzaki?" Momoshiro suddenly asked. His eyes widened. "You didn't leave her behind, did you?"

Ryoma hesitated. "I think… she's mad at me."

"EHH?" Momoshiro exclaimed. "Why?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

Momoshiro thought back. "Did you… _say_ anything? Anything like, "You're talking so much today."?" He pointed accusing fingers at Ryoma with his eyes.

"No!" He'd learned his lesson to never mention Ryuzaki's talking habits. But this was different. He'd honestly done nothing wrong, right? Ryoma rubbed his forehead. "Girls are weird…"

They were distracted by a cry of "BURNING!" Instead of a pole, Kawamura had a racket in his hand and was brandishing it wildly. Ryoma half expected to see a path of melted snow behind him. They swerved out of his way just in time, the conversation momentarily forgotten.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kikumaru finally managed to shove a pole into the ground, slowing the giant snowball that he and Sayaka had become. The pole left a long, jagged mark in the snow as they gradually tumbled to a stop.

"Ow… I think I'm bruised all over from that…" Sayaka was saying as she tried to push herself up.

Kikumaru froze.

Sayaka cringed, opening her eyes. "Eh? Eiji-senpai?" She had landed on top of him and was probably crushing his lungs. Was that why he looked so flushed right now? She pushed herself off of him. "Well… I don't want to do _that_ again…"

"Er… we…we're way behind now!" he said hastily, getting up and brushing himself off. "Let's catch up!" Although his tone was back to normal, try as he might, Kikumaru couldn't shake off the weird feeling he'd just felt.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Izumi-chan, are you all right?"

Izumi looked up at Chiharu. "Eh. Ah… I'm fine."

"You've looked a little down ever since yesterday…" Chiharu pointed out gently. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Was she sure she was okay? No, she wasn't. But what was she supposed to say? '_Chiharu-san is so sensitive…_' Chiharu could probably just guess exactly what was wrong if she said two words.

"Did something happen between you and Fuji-san?"

Scratch that. She could guess without words too.

Izumi gave her an alarmed glance. "Why—why would you say that?"

"Just a feeling…" Chiharu said. "Fuji-san doesn't look like his usual self today either…"

"Really?" She looked around for him, but he had already gone ahead with Tezuka and Suzume and some of the more advanced skiers. She tried to recall what he'd looked like a breakfast. He'd pretty much looked the same, smiling face and all. She wasn't too sure. She hadn't really looked at him.

She'd been avoiding his gaze.

"How… can you tell?"

"Just a feeling…" she repeated. "Do you want to talk about it…"

"…not really."'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

They had been casual skiing for around two hours now. Most of the people were stretched out, in pairs or on their own. The less advanced people got caught on bumps and uneven terrain and (in Momoshiro's case) tree branches. Most of the better skiers were at the front of the slope, although some decided to work on stunts and jumps on the ramps. Tezuka and some others had already taken the cable car halfway back up the slope so they could ski down once more.

The crisp winter air blowing at their cheeks, the wind through their hair as they glided smoothly gave them a sense of freedom. Some of them raced, some of them tried to outdo each other on ramps, and all of them had fun. It felt like they had all the time in the world to play.

That time was cut short.

The walkie-talkies pinned onto their waists suddenly crackled to life. "Guys, head back to the mansion immediately! I repeat, head back immediately! There's a storm coming! We have about 40 minutes!"

If one was viewing the scene from above, they would see a bunch of black dots suddenly heading towards a thin line, like ants moving towards a line of honey. That line was a rope tow. Everyone grabbed on and cursed the tow for not moving faster.

Suzume reached the top before anyone else. Although she'd been closer to the bottom than any of them, she'd inched along the rope tow like a monkey climbing a rope, skipping past most of them. She knew that the rope tow took approximately 10 minutes to get from bottom to top, and then the chair lift that followed took another 10 minutes. She clenched her walkie-talkie. There wasn't that much time.

As she got to the top, she began noting the people that gradually appeared above the snowy horizon. Chiharu… Akane… Kaidoh… Kimiko—who was sporting a swollen cheek, probably due to a fall—… It wasn't fast enough. The winds were already speeding up, tearing through her jacket. She could _feel_ the storm coming. It was practically on their heels already.

Chiharu sensed her impatience and picked up her own walkie talkie. "We only have a few more minutes. Please respond and report your position!"

"Hoi! About 2 minutes from the top with Sayaka-chan!"

"BURNING!" I can see the mansion, GREAT!"

"There is 99% chance that I will arrive in the next thirty seconds."

More and more people joined them at the top of the mountain outside the resort. Finally, Momoshiro and Ryoma brought up the rear, panting heavily. Suzume began counting heads. "Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…" She stopped, her heart suddenly beating erratically. "That's not right."

There was a short pause.

"Where's… Ryuzaki?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Chiharu grabbed her walkie-talkie. "Sakuno-chan! Respond and report your position please!"

It was met with silence.

"Sakuno-chan!"

Suzume unhooked another electronic device from her belt. "I can track her walkie-talkie's position with this. They all have tracers in them…" She looked at the device. "What?" There were several red dots appearing across the screen, but they were all clustered around her. She counted the red dots. Seventeen. "Oh no… She's not showing up…"

"What does that mean?" Momoshiro asked.

"She turned off her walkie-talkie… or that it's broken…" Suzume paled. "She's somewhere on the mountain."

"Echizen!" Tezuka barked abruptly. "Where are you going?"

Ryoma stopped in his tracks. He had been walking back out towards the mountain slope, almost making it to the edge. "Ryuzaki… Ryuzaki is still out there…"

"It's too dangerous." Tezuka said, raising his voice above the wind. "It's better for us to wait here and hope she'll find her way ba—"

"You don't know Ryuzaki!" Ryoma shouted. "She gets lost in her own house! There's no _way_ she can find her way on her own!"

There was a long silence.

"Please." Ryoma said.

Ryoma hardly said 'please'.

Tezuka stayed firm. "I cannot allow you to—"

Chiharu stood up, her eyes flashing. "Let's divide into groups and search for her," She didn't even wait for confirmation. "Akane, escort the freshmen and 2nd years back to the hotel." This was met with a few indignant cries, but she continued. "Fuji, Reina, Tezuka—you three take the bottom of the slope work your way up. Inui, Izumi and I will start from the top. Kawamura and Aiko, find snowmobiles and hotel staff that can operate them."

All of them stayed silent as she continued.

"Standby with those. Oishi, go back with Akane and see if you can contact a rescue team from the town and an ambulance." She shifted her ski goggles over her eyes. "Let's do this."

"Why can't I go?" Suzume interrupted.

Chiharu looked at her, her expression softening. "Suzume-chan—"

"I know you picked the most skilled skiers in the group, and honestly, I can out-ski most of you guys!" she said. "I want to help!"

"It's not that, Suzume-chan," Chiharu replied. "You're not of age. You can't take responsibility for yourself yet."

Suzume locked her jaw angrily and stepped back.

"We don't have much time." Chiharu said, turning to the rest of them. Her goggles flashed. "Let's go."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno distinctly remembered falling.

Her skis hit a bump… and then she was going fast—too fast. She tried to jab her poles into the ground, but they stuck too well and were ripped from her hands. Her ski suit hissed against the icy runway as she tried sitting on her bottom to slow herself down. She only seemed to accelerate. One of her skis hit a rock at the side of the slope, sending her flying into the air and tumbling to the side. Her skis snapped off her feet. She grasped desperately for the rock.

And then she fell.

There was that dreadful weightless sensation in her stomach for as she plummeted down the edge. Her right leg crumbled beneath her, searing pain in her boot, before the world went dark.

'_No!_' She forced herself awake, unsure of how much time had passed. Sakuno had watched enough television to know that people who slept in winter storms almost never woke up again.

'_Storms…_'

Suzume had mentioned something about mountain storms.

Was she in a storm right now? The wind was whipping across her face, blowing dead leaves and ice into her eyes. She rubbed them with her swollen fingers, frozen red. Her body was numb, the air around her so cold that it felt like fire.

'_I have to find shelter!_'

Her limbs felt like granite. Each joint was screaming and aching as she tried to crawl to a safer place. She had fallen off the main slope into some sort of undergrowth pass. She looked up and saw the main ski trail on an elevated pass about five meters above her. Putting her hands on a small crack in the rock, she tried to shove herself back onto the main slope. Her leg dragged behind her as she stumbled. A scream tore out from her dry throat: "Please… please help me!"

But it was lost in the wind.

'_The walkie-talkie!_' she realized with sudden hope. She could call for help! She reached for her belt to find… nothing.

It had dropped somewhere.

Sakuno used her last remaining strength to move herself behind a rock. Nobody would be looking for her, she thought in despair. Not in this weather. Even if they were, it'd be unlikely she'd ever be found. Tears pricked her eyes that began to freeze once they reached her cheeks. There were so many people she never got to say goodbye to.

"Ryoma-kun…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The howl of the wind outside and the crackling fire was all they heard. None of them spoke.

Oishi passed out mugs of hot chocolate to the rest of them. "St-stop worrying…" he tried to break the silence. It was almost ironic that he should be the one uttering these words. "It'll be fine. I called the town rescue team and they'll send one over as soon as possible."

They sat around the giant oak table silently. Suzume stared at her reflection in the mug. "I should be out there. I should be with them."

"Suzume…" Akane said.

She set her mug down with force. "It's not fair… I know you, Oishi-senpai, Kawamura-senpai and Aiko-senpai got sent back because you aren't good enough. But I'm different. I can ski better than most of the ones already out there!"

"Hush…" Akane said, almost gently. "They'll find Sakuno."

Suzume let out a skeptical breath.

Meanwhile, the walkie-talkie that Ryoma had set on the table was still speaking.

"First 100 meters clear! No sign! Reina, what about you?"

"Nothing from my end either!"

The freshman's fingers tightened on the mug. Momoshiro noticed this. "Oi, worrying won't help. By the way…" He turned to Akane. "Since when was Oshiro-senpai so tough? She's like a different person." He thought back on the way she ordered them around at the slope.

Akane smiled a secret smile. "Of course she's tough. Chiharu's dad works for the military."

"Ah… that explains a lot…" Kimiko said, looking a bit relieved. Chiharu did look militant back there. "She scared me when she suddenly took control of everything."

"And why is Watanabe-senpai so _perfect_?" Momoshiro added. "She draws, she sings, she beats _everyone_ in chess, and she can ski too?"

"Not to mention tennis…" Suzume muttered under her breath. She was still bitter about losing to Reina a few months ago.

"She's just so _talented._ Is she a tensai too?" Momoshiro asked. If you thought about it, Fuji played the flute, is skilled at billiards, skiing _and_ tennis as well. Stupid tensais, he thought to himself. People should only be allowed to be good at a few things.

Akane's expression suddenly darkened. "Reina is far from perfect."

All of them looked up, surprised at her sudden change of tone. "Wh-what do you mean?" Oishi asked.

"You think that's talent?" Akane said bitterly. "It's not talent at all. It's insecurity. Reina is one of the most insecure people I know."

"Akane-buchou, what are you talking about?" Suzume said. "How is it _not_ talent?"

Akane stared at her reflection in the cup. "Suzume, you wouldn't remember Miyuki-senpai, would you?"

Suzume shook her head. "Not at all…"

"Kimiko, you know."

Kimiko smiled. "Yeah, Miyuki-senpai! She was always in the computer room when I went to work on stuff! I remember! She was in choir too and she used to have a _bunch _of water colors displayed in the…" Her eyes widened in realization. "Oh… god…"

"Reina… is like a lost child," Akane explained tentatively, as if trying to find the right words. "She's always followed after sister. So much that she practically became her sister's doppelganger. She's not actually talented."

"What?"

She let out a breath. "She practiced. She practiced daily and nightly her singing and drawing skills. They took lessons from the same teachers and everything," she told them heavily. "Miyuki-senpai was a real genius."

"Eh? Like Fuji-senpai?" Momoshiro asked.

"No." Akane said. "An actual _genius._ Her IQ is 196. She was a walking encyclopedia."

"So is that why Reina talks with big words?" Momoshiro asked eagerly. " 'Cause her sister used to?"

"Miyuki-senpai knew what all those words meant, but she would only use one of them occasionally. I think it was a desperate attempt to surpass her sister that Reina learned all of those words." Akane concluded. She ran a hand through her ginger hair.

All of them stared into their cups and wondered. Some of them sipped at their drinks just so they could avoid answering or have something to do with their hands.

"I think…" Akane continued, hesitating. "I think that when Miyuki-senpai disappeared, it was the ultimate betrayal for Reina. To lose someone that you've looked up to… that you've followed for so many years… it hurt her so much."

' "_Mama, when is onee-chan coming home?"_

"_Reina, your sister left for boarding school this morning. Didn't you know?"_

"_Oh… okay. When is she coming back?"_

"_I don't know."_

"_Onee-chan wouldn't leave me, right? She'll be back…"_

Suzume couldn't help but think about Sakiko and how she felt betrayed as well. She knew exactly how Reina felt.

"Oishi-kun, do you remember how Reina was like when her sister was still around?"

"Ah…-ah…" he replied. "She was so bubbly and open… Exactly like her sister, right?"

"Exactly."

"Then…" Ryoma finally spoke after staying silent for so long. "Maybe her sister left in order to let her become her own person."

Akane's gaze hardened. "Well, that didn't work."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Reina only found someone else to follow."

Momoshiro stared, confused. "Who?"

Akane fixed her eyes onto his, cerulean blue. "Who do you think?"

There was a short pause.

"Not… Inui-senpai?"

"Bingo."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

All of them were digesting this piece of information when suddenly a cry on the walkie-talkie was heard.

"I've found her!"

Nearly all of them leaped up from their seats, their hearts pumping with renewed vigor. Oishi reached for the walkie-talkie, but Akane stopped him. "We shouldn't get in the way of their communication."

"Where? Positions?"

"300 meters out from the start of the slope, about 100 meters to the east of the main trail! She needs medical attention! Komboi, Kawamura, do you copy?"

"Roger." Two voices were said in unison.

"Dispatch snowmobiles immediately! Reina, what is the position of your group?"

"A little over a mile from the top of the slope!"

Oishi fell back into an armchair. "Thank god, thank god…"

"They've found her!" Momoshiro grabbed Ryoma. "They've found her, Echizen!"

"I heard…" But anyone could see that he was extremely relieved.

Suzume threw a look towards the windows. The sky was darkening, but there was still some light visible. "The storm hasn't hit us completely yet! They'll make it back!" Hope was soaring within her.

Little did she know that that her hope would be shattered in a few minutes.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hang in there, Sakuno-chan…" Chiharu murmured. Her words were smothered by the wind tearing through the trees. She hoisted the smaller girl up and began carrying her out.

"Se-senpai…" Sakuno felt tears of relief and happiness leaking through her eyes. Her body was still limp and unresponsive, but she was being saved. Snow clung to her eyelashes, or perhaps they were frozen tears.

Chiharu struggled a bit with her weight. Sakuno winced. Chiharu immediately set her down in concern. "Are you hurt?"

"My… my ankle…"

When Chiharu touched her ankle, she let out a shriek of pain.

"It's probably twisted." Inui said. "Once we get you back to the mansion, you'll be okay…" He lifted her up in his strong arms. "C'mon, let's get going." They walked back towards the main trail. The _vroom vroom_ sound of an engine cut through the winter air, alerting them of the arrival of help. Two snowmobiles, operated by hotel staff, were waiting.

Inui hoisted the injured girl onto the back of a snowmobile. "Oshiro-san?" He motioned for her to get on the other snowmobile. There was only room for two people to go back at one time.

Chiharu wasn't looking at him. She was staring at something else. "Go back first. It's only about a 5 minute ride on snowmobile, and we can't all fit. Come and pick us up after you've been dropped off."

Inui nodded, knowing there was no time to lose, and hopped on to the snowmobile. They disappeared into the darkness.

"Izumi-chan, are those her skis?" Chiharu said, pointing to a dark rectangular shape in the middle of the snow.

"I think so…" She squinted at it. It was hard to see in the flurry of snow that was coming down upon them.

Chiharu detached her own and went to retrieve Sakuno's skis. The skis had landed in a strange place, she noted. All around there were no footprints or bumps in the snow, except the ones she made. The ground was surprisingly smooth. Her fingers stretched out to take them.

She never reached them.

The ground dropped away beneath her with a sickening crack.

She didn't even have time to scream as she fell into the pond. The liquid closed in on her from all sides, so cold it felt like burning acid on her skin. It brought an instantaneous wave of panic. The impact pulled her under. Water seeped in her goggles and boots, blinding her and pulling her further down. She kicked upwards desperately, breaking the surface of water, coughing and sputtering.

"Chiharu-san!" Izumi cried, reaching for her. She managed to slip her arms under Chiharu and wrenched upwards, but she was too heavy. Her body weight ended up dragging Izumi's upper arms into the water as well.

Chiharu's fingers squabbled on the edge of the ice, finding nothing to grab. Her ski coat managed to keep the cold out for a second or two, before the water penetrated through her clothes, trapping her in a lung-crushing fist of cold.

"Kick!" Izumi grabbed onto her jacket, almost ripping it in her frantic attempt to get Chiharu back onto shore.

Chiharu tried. Her muscles were already becoming like lead, unresponsive and heavy. Her lungs seemed to refuse to draw breath. Her soaked coat became heavier by the second, and her water-filled boots were like twin anchors.

Suddenly she went under. She fought her lung's desire for oxygen. Screams echoed inside her mind. Her numb fingers reached for the faint light above desperately. With the last of her strength, she kicked her legs hard in a final attempt to propel herself upwards.

She hit the ice above her and went limp.

Izumi felt her arms become heavier all of a sudden. She saw Chiharu's immobile figure and felt a spike of pure terror. "Chiharu-san?"

Then she saw faint streaks of red in the water. Blood.

"Chiharu-san!" Izumi prayed that she'd only been knocked unconscious and knew that if that was the case, she had to keep her head above water. She yanked Chiharu's body up hard, her head managed to break the water once more.

Her arms ached with her effort. "No!" She knew she needed to call for help and that she couldn't support Chiharu's weight on her own, but she could not take her arm away to reach for her walkie-talkie. If she did, she would surely lose her balance and both would tumble to their watery graves. '_Why aren't the snowmobiles here yet?_' She tried to look up for them, only to find that she could barely see in front of her at all. When did the flurry of snow become a blizzard?

More time passed. Her attempts to get Chiharu onto surface resulted in water splashing all over her. Her suit was soaked and she was shivering. The wind blowing past her made the water burn into her skin. Her frozen muscles were being strained to their limit.

For some reason, memories from training suddenly popped into her mind. Whenever her limits were being tested, she would give up. She remembered crossing the line late when running laps and being forced to drink Inui juice. To be honest, she probably could've passed it on time if she just pushed herself a little. But she never did.

She remembered being in the dance team. After the pressure of being the lead for so many performances took its toll… she couldn't push herself. She quit.

The student council as well… she couldn't quite bring herself to withstand those huge responsibilities. She left.

But this was different. This time, there was a life on the line. For once, she realized, giving up was not an option. She wouldn't quit. She wouldn't let herself quit. She _could not_, she yelled at herself. '_Do you not understand?_' Chiharu would _die. _'_You can't give up this time!_' She clamped onto Chiharu's body with her upper arms and vowed to never let go. She had to save her.

To her horror, she felt them both slipping down. '_No!_'

Suddenly, like a guardian angel, someone else's arm shot out next to hers with lightning speed. Their combined efforts did what one could not, and Chiharu was heaved out of the water.

Panting, Izumi looked up to their savior. "T-tezuka-san?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi stared at him. "How…? What…?"

"I was worried."

Izumi swallowed and looked at Chiharu, lying on the ground. "She… I think she hit her head…"

Tezuka nodded briskly and picked her up easily. "There's a wooden hut at the checkpoint, about 100 meters down. Let's make for that. It'll be dangerous for us to remain in the storm." He had to shout the last few words, as the wind had picked up. The trees were bending perilously.

She followed him, her legs feeling sluggish. They were walking against the wind. The ice gnawed at their flesh as the cold wind lashed their skin. They both ducked their heads lower to shield themselves. It was now pitch black and she was sure she would lose Tezuka if she fell two steps behind. Every few seconds, her hand reached in front of her to make sure he was still there.

She didn't even see the hut until they were on its doorstep. Tezuka forced the door open and they clambered inside. He then closed the door, trapping the wind outside.

With the viciousness of the wind absent, Izumi was now aware of how cold she was. She turned on the light and looked around. Although there was a fireplace, there was neither wood nor fire. The rest of the hut was bare, with a few spare skies lying in the corner. She recognized them as Reina, Fuji and Tezuka's skies. They had stopped here before.

He put the walkie-talkie to his mouth. "This is Tezuka. We're currently trapped at the first checkpoint, about one mile away from the slope. Please send help."

Only a burst of static was heard in reply.

Best case scenario: the message had gone through. But he had to prepare for the worst.

They were on their own.

Tezuka began unzipping Chiharu's coat, which was soggy to the point that it felt almost as heavy as she was. When he got down to her sweater, so wet that it was clinging to her, Izumi said, "What are you doing?"

Not that she thought he was doing anything indecent, (since it was _Tezuka_), but still.

"You both could get hypothermia or pneumonia if you stay wet and cold," Tezuka said. He turned to look at her. "You should get rid of your wet clothes. You of all people cannot risk getting a fever."

Chiharu's undergarments were dry, which was a relief, since he really did not want to go further than that. He searched his mind for any other methods to prevent and treat hypothermia. Most of what he remembered required hot towels or blankets, and he had none. Chiharu's skin was cold against his. If she remained cold, the consequences could be fatal. He urged himself to remain calm, and _think._

_Body heat._

He ripped off his own jacket and shook the snow off so that it wouldn't melt. He used his sweater as a temporary bandage which he pressed to the wound on her head. And then he laid down next her, holding her close, before draping the jacket over the two of them. He hoped his body heat would be enough.

A few moments later he felt Izumi pressing her body against Chiharu's back, the three of them lying there together. He averted his eyes respectfully.

This was beyond embarrassment and scandal. This was a fight for survival.

"Is she…" Izumi asked, looking at the wound on her head. "…going to be okay?"

Tezuka pressed his sweater against her head a bit harder. "It's not serious. She probably passed out on impact." It would be more accurate if he said he _hoped_ she passed out on impact, because if she lost consciousness due to something else, she was in a lot more danger.

"Then, when is she going to wake up?" Izumi asked, hopeful.

"She…" He decided to be honest. "She should've woken up by now."

"What?"

It was true. With the exposure to water and since some time has passed, if she had lost consciousness due to the impact on her skull, she should be awake by now. The impact itself shouldn't have been heavy; after all, water had its own resistance.

But she hadn't woken up. And they were both starting to fear the worst.

"Wake up, Chiharu-san…" Izumi started shaking her. Tears were forming in her eyes. "Chiharu-san…"

"Morioka…"

"Wake up!" she begged. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, unchecked. "Please wake up!" She took in wet, shaky breaths. Chiharu was such a good person. She'd always noticed when someone else felt down or sad, she'd always tried to comfort them… why was she being punished like this? Why was life so cruel?

'_It should be me lying there…'_ Izumi thought, bitter and sad. '_It should be anyone else… anyone deserves it more than her…_'

Tezuka reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Morioka, calm down."

"Why won't she wake up, Tezuka-san?" she all but sobbed. "Why won't she?"

"You have to calm down. It's not your fault."

"How can you say that?" She stopped talking in order to draw in a few more breaths. "If I were only stronger… If I'd gotten her out of the water faster…"

"Don't blame yourself. It won't help her." he said sharply.

"She's done so much for me… she's always known how to make me feel better… and I can't even keep her alive…"

"Morioka!" His voice was more like a command right now, and her head shot up. "You have to calm yourself. The best thing you can do for her is to remain calm."

Who was he to talk? His own heart was beating unnaturally fast.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The situation was now worse than when Sakuno was missing.

Three people were now missing, and had been missing for quite a while. The hotel staff on the snowmobiles had been unable to find their way back to where Izumi and Chiharu had been waiting, despite being able to track their walkie-talkie locations. They were lucky enough to be able to bring Sakuno and Inui back to the hotel.

Now the walkie-talkie had lost its signal.

Sakuno had been brought up to a room and was treated. She was recovering quickly.

Most of the others were gathered around the table, but no words were spoken.

Momoshiro had just come out of the bathroom when he saw a figure moving towards the main door. He moved to intercept him/her. "Oi, Kimura. Where do you think you're going?"

Suzume undid the scarf from around her mouth. "All right, it was okay to stay when Ryuzaki was out there. But this is _Chiharu-senpai_ that's gone missing! You _have_ to let me go and find her."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that," He shook his head. "I know you're good and you can navigate these mountains well, but its way too dang—"

"You don't understand!" she exploded. "This is beyond skill and danger! I can't abandon Chiharu-senpai like this! I just can't! If there's any chance to save her…" To his utter surprise, her eyes (eye) were moist. "Let me go."

He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Why is it so important that you go and rescue Oshiro-senpai? Why is it her and not Morioka-senpai or Tezuka-buchou?"

"I don't have time for this!" She tried to break past him, but he stood firm. She raised her fist and punched him. There wasn't any martial arts skill in the punch; it was pure fury and panic.

He took the punch but didn't let go. "There's a rescue team out looking for them, and they'll do better than you. Just tell me why. What is your relationship with Oshiro-senpai?" He looked at her one green eye, trying to decipher the emotions swimming inside. "You said once that she saved your life… what do you mean?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

He'd managed to coax her to the floor where they both sat down and she began her story.

"I was always a delinquent in school," she was saying. "I'd get into fights, skip class, everything… My mom yelled at me all the time, but my dad… he'd just accept me. Sometimes I would crawl into his arms and be his little girl again, and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world."

He listened intently.

She rested her head on her knee. "When he died in that car crash, it was like the world came crashing down around me. I just… couldn't go on. And Chiharu-senpai tried to reach out for me…"

—FLASHBACK—

"Kimura-chan?"

"I'm not going to tennis practice anymore!" Suzume yelled. "I hate tennis!" She grabbed her tennis bag and ran from the senpai with blue-gray hair and amber eyes.

Even at home her brothers would surround her, worrying, caring. "Suzume…"

"Leave me alone!" She slammed her bedroom door shut. She buried her head in the pillows and screamed. "You all don't understand me! Only he understood me… and now he's gone…"

"_It just went on like that… for days… A never ending grief… And Chiharu-senpai tried…"_

"Kimura-chan?"

Suzume lifted her head from her bed, only to see Chiharu. Her senpai from the tennis club, one of the two that she could never beat. Why was she here? "What."

"If you want to talk—"

"I DON'T WANT TO!" She clutched her pillow to her chest. Why was it so hard for them to see that? Did they think that a few words would be able to make her forget her father's death? "I don't want to talk to anybody! Just f*cking leave me alone!"

Her eyes appeared to be glowing gently, radiating patience and understanding. "Kimura-chan… I know what you're going through. My mother died of cancer. I—"

"You _don't_ know what I'm going through, senpai! Cancer? You were with your mother when she was dying!" Tears spilled from her eyes. "But I… He left and… I didn't even get to tell him I loved him…" She sobbed into her pillow. "I didn't even get to tell him… that I was sorry…"

Chiharu reached out for her, but Suzume shrugged her hand away.

She heaved a breath through her sobs. "I didn't even get to say goodbye…"

"_And then it just got worse. To the point where I didn't want to go on living…_"

There was no one at home. Her brothers were out. She kneeled onto the ground, the barrel of the gun placed on her temple. It felt cool against her skin. "It's not that I want to join you, Dad… I just… don't want to live in a world where you aren't around…"

She knelt and cried. She cried. She cried because she actually _was_ scared. She cried because living was so painful. She cried because the world was being so unfair for taking him so soon and because she really didn't know what to do.

"I don't know what to do… Why aren't you around to tell me? Why can't you guide me like you always did?"

The phone rang upstairs, and she ignored it, cocking the gun. '_The party is unable to take your call_…'

The answering machine clicked on. "Kimura-chan…" She recognized Chiharu's voice.

"I thought about what you said… and you're right, our circumstances are different. You didn't get the chance to say goodbye. But you know… I had to watch… I had to watch my mother die."

Another sob tore through her throat.

"I… I know that it's hard, Kimura-chan. But your father loved you, and he would've wished your happiness. If you loved your father, Kimura-chan… you should try and move on." Her voice cracked in the middle of the message.

"Kimura-chan, Akane is asking when you're coming back to practice. We all miss you. Call me back, okay?"

When her brothers came home and found her, she was crying on the ground, holding the gun in her arms. The answering machine was still blinking.

—END FLASHBACK—

"She… she really did save you…" Momoshiro said.

"Yeah…" Suzume said quietly. "It was more than just ruining my suicide attempt. I found her the next morning and I just broke down in her arms… and it almost felt like I was with my father again, being the little girl in his lap… She just managed to quell my bad emotions and make them go away… and after that I just… changed. I don't know how, but… something about her... just made me feel at peace."

"She's… amazing…" Momoshiro said. "Chiharu-senpai, that is…" This explained everything. Why she let Chiharu get rid of her cigarettes but no one else. Why she only listened to Chiharu's reprimands when she was deaf to Akane's, Tezuka's and everyone else's. Why she always protected Chiharu, always defended her against everything, be it fangirls or perverts.

"I don't know how I'm ever going to repay her. I could save her a thousand times and it wouldn't be enough."

"Well…" Momoshiro let out a small grin. "You can start by not getting yourself killed out in the cold."

She laughed a little too. "Yeah… thanks for making me see that. I'm sorry for earlier," She indicated his cheek, which was beginning to swell from her punch.

He patted it. "I'm practically used to it now."

Suddenly the door opened and a gust of cold wind blew inside. They both stood and gasped as the rescue team came in, supporting three weary and dirty, but alive, people. One of them set Chiharu down, where she stood weakly, her eyes half open. "Suzume-chan…?"

Suzume dived into her arms.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"You have no idea how worried we were, Tezuka…" Oishi said.

Tezuka had a close guess. Kikumaru had almost broken his ribs when he hugged him out of relief.

"We were lucky they found us…" Tezuka confirmed. The hut was a bit far from the main slope and hard to see in the weather. However they had turned on the light inside, which shone like a beacon in the darkness.

"You should rest, Tezuka…" Oishi said. "You've been through a lot already."

"Ah." he agreed. He would just make a stop to check on Chiharu first.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Chiharu." He'd opened the door and entered, seating himself next to her bed. She'd been sharing a room with Akane (Suzume had her own room), but the latter was still downstairs.

She raised her head and looked at him with her half closed eyes, obviously fighting fatigue. "Tezuka…san?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine… just a bit weak…" She breathed heavily between her words, laying her head back onto the pillow. She was too tired to lift it and look at him while she spoke. "Tezuka-san… I'm sorry about yesterday… and getting angry… I didn't mean—"

"You don't have to apologize." Tezuka said.

"Izumi-san told me how you saved me…" Chiharu said. Each word took effort. Her eyes were closing. "I… I really am sorry…"

"You don't have to apologize for anything." he repeated. "I should've…" He broke off his sentence, unsure of what to say. She seemed to understand his meaning because she smiled slightly. For a while there was silence. He shifted slightly in the chair.

She mistook the shifting noise as him getting up to leave. Her hand reached for him blindly, grasping desperately. "Please… stay with me for a while…"

He paused. And then he locked his fingers within hers.

"Of course."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter Nineteen

**A/N: **That's a huge arc taken care of now.I think I'll be writing about the St. Rudolph matches as soon as possible. Get ready for some epic tennis! So in the next chapter, I'll have some RyoSaku fluff as Sakuno recovers from the icy cold escapade, and maybe a little more FujixIzumi. But then I'll probably jump straight to the matches a few months later.

As previously mentioned, I riding a writing wave at the moment and will try to ride it for as long as possible.

**Review **and the next chapter might come out as fast as this one.


	20. Rest, Recovery and Animals

**Disclaimer: Don't Own.**

Not the best idea to update when you have two finals tomorrow, but I felt like it. Sue me. Lol. This chapter isn't really anything, just a conclusion of the whole winter arc I guess. It's fun. Some characters are absent in this one, but I'll put them in the next few.

To Recap: People almost froze to death last chapter. That is all.

Sorry for not updating. Anyways, here it is.

**To Catch A Falling Star-Chapter Twenty: Rest, Recovery and Animals**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sayaka peered into the kitchen. Something smelled good. Then again, good smells usually came from the kitchen. That is, unless she was cooking. "Eiji-senpai, are you cooking again?"

To her surprise, she didn't find Kikumaru, but Kawamura, Aiko and _Kaidoh_ instead. "Good morning, Sayaka-chan…?" Aiko's greeting carried the tone of a question, as if asking her whether she was saying the words right. '_Am I saying good afternoon by accident instead?_' Although she could often understand what others were saying, speaking it was entirely different.

"Good job!" Sayaka replied in English, flashing her a thumbs up. "Kaidoh, what is that?" There was a delicious homey smell coming from the stove.

This time Aiko said something that sounded like "knowing," which obviously didn't make any sense. A glance at the stove helped Sayaka decipher her meaning. "_Soup._" Sayaka said clearly, grinning. The words were almost identical in sound, so it was easy for Aiko to make a mistake. Her accent was still there, after all.

Aiko copied her pronunciation. "_Soup_."

"See?" Kawamura said encouragingly. "You're learning well."

"Thank you." She always looked for an excuse to say '_thank you_.' It was the one phrase she could nail with almost no accent.

"So what is that?" Sayaka asked.

Kaidoh grunted, ladling the soup into two bowels that were on white plastic trays. "What she said. Soup."

"I didn't know you could cook!" Sayaka said. "That's nice... Are those for Sakuno-chan and Chiharu-senpai?"

"Yeah. Not like you can expect sick people to cook for themselves…" he said indifferently. Miko leaped onto the counter and sniffed at the two bowls. "Oi. Not for you. Go away." She mewed reproachfully and he went "Fshh…."

The rest of them smiled. Kaidoh was showing a more caring side, despite how much he tried to hide it.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Izumi-san?"

She turned to see Fuji, who was carrying a tray with a bowl on top. The soup was steaming hot. He smiled. "Kaidoh wanted me to bring this up to Oshiro-san…"

She couldn't help but move a little away. What happened on Christmas day was still engraved in her mind. "I… I wanted to see how Chiharu-san was doing, but Tezuka-san's still with her, so—"

"_Still_?" Fuji chuckled. "My, my, what are they doing?"

'_He could've done a lot more,_' she thought to herself, thinking about their desperate attempts to warm Chiharu up yesterday. She colored slightly. '_If only you knew…_' If the evidence that Tezuka had feelings for Chiharu was accepted, then he was either completely dense or he had an extreme amount of self control. But, she reminded herself, the situation was dire and everyone acts differently in an emergency.

"I wish I could see what you're imagining now, Izumi-san." Fuji said in a teasing tone.

"Wh-what! I—"

"Just kidding," He smiled some more before looking at the door. "Well, it's a pity that we have to intrude on them, but this soup won't stay hot forever."

Izumi noticed that he didn't have any hands to open the door with, so she knocked on it and opened it for him.

"Thank you…"

"Fuji. Morioka." Tezuka stood up.

Fuji presented the soup. "Here. Kaidoh made it for Oshiro-san."

"Kaidoh… did?" Chiharu thought she heard an echo of disbelief in Tezuka's voice, but it might've been her imagination.

Apparently Fuji heard it too. "Heh… I'm sure it's edible. Oshiro-san, can you sit up?"

She struggled a little, but managed to prop her head up against the headboard. The doctor had warned her that she wasn't going to have much energy today, and that she shouldn't try to move around too much anyways. If she did, all of her warm blood would flow to her arms and legs, and the cold blood would go to her heart and vital organs. And that would _not_ be good.

Fuji placed the soup on the bedside table. Then, in a low voice that only she could hear, he said, "Shall we make Tezuka jealous?" He sat next to her, looping an arm around her shoulders, holding her upright. With his other hand, he raised the spoon to her lips. "Say aaah."

Chiharu felt too weak to protest. She leaned against his support and sipped at the soup. "It's… good…" she managed to say.

Tezuka, if he was jealous at all, wasn't showing it. Instead he turned to Izumi. "How are you feeling?"

Her hand went to her forehead. "I'm fine."

"If you get a fever, you're going to the hospital." A direct statement.

"Hai."

"Izumi-san, we should probably go," He winked. "We wouldn't want to disturb Tezuka and Oshiro-san too much."

Her lips curved up a little. "Yeah… let's go…"

He gently set Chiharu back against the headboard. "Tezuka, you should help her with the rest of her lunch."

Tezuka merely closed his eyes, as if weary from the constant teasing and suggestions. However, he did move next to Chiharu, causing the latter to blush a little more. Fuji closed the door firmly behind him.

"He really likes her, you know…" Fuji said. "I just wonder how long it'll take him to actually realize it."

Izumi nodded, staring at the door. "Maybe… maybe a part of him doesn't want to realize it. Because when you finally realize some things… they become more real, and reality tends to frighten people. It's like admitting to yourself that you're wrong," She shivered, as if the thought itself was cold. "And no one wants to be wrong."

"Do you ever have that feeling?"

Her eyes met his for a brief moment. And then she looked down and whispered, "Every day. All the time."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hee hee, Mamushi is such a homemaker!"

"Urusei!"

Kaidoh kicked down the door to Sakuno's room, clearly not in the best of moods. He banged the tray with the soup onto Sakuno's bedside table forcefully, causing the lamp to jump half an inch into the air. "Oi. Eat it."

"H-hai!"

He just stood there, arms crossed. Sakuno then realized that he meant for her to try it in front of him. She scooted over to the side of the bed, bending down to reach the bowl. She picked up the spoon, blew on it a few times, and gingerly put in her mouth. Her eyes lit up. "It's really good! Kaidoh-senpai is amazing!"

His cheeks went a little pink and he went "Fshhhhh" in a satisfied manner.

"Hmm…" Ryoma poked his head out from around the tall second year. "Soup made by Kaidoh-senpai… Is it edible, Ryuzaki?"

"Why you—" Kaidoh made an attempt to grab Ryoma by the scruff of his shirt, but he ducked away just in time.

"Oi, Kaidoh, we shouldn't be too rowdy in Ryuzaki's room…" Momoshiro said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "She's still recovering."

"Fshh…" he hissed disapprovingly, but nonetheless turned to the girl. "Eat." And left.

Momoshiro leaned over to Ryoma. "Be _nice_. And try to take her mind off her injuries, okay?" He rumpled Ryoma's hair, much to the annoyance of the latter, and followed his fellow second year out.

Ryoma leaned back on his chair, watching the two leave with a concentrated frown. Sakuno gulped down her mouthful of soup, also staring at them, but unable to find anything unusual. "Ryoma-kun, is something wrong?"

He frowned some more. "Ne… If Kaidoh-senpai is a viper, what is Momo-senpai?"

Sakuno pondered this thoughtfully. There was a loud crash outside, followed by some loud voices. Clearly they were arguing again. She giggled. "Probably a chimpanzee…"

"Or a donkey." Ryoma said. He thought again at the way Momoshiro laughed and yelled. "No, a chimpanzee, actually."

"And Oishi-senpai?"

"That one's easy," Ryoma said with a grin. "A mother hen. He can't be anything else. And Kikumaru-senpai's obviously a cat, with all the "nya"s and everything…"

"Sayaka-senpai's a dolphin." Sakuno said after a while. At first, when she was thinking about it, all she could see was a catfish.

"Hmm… not a cat? Not a lioness or something?"

"Aiko-senpai's a lioness. Sayaka-senpai is too… fun-loving to be a lion."

"Oh. I guess so. Morioka-senpai?"

Sakuno concentrated hard. "A whooping crane."

"Hmm… not bad." Ryoma smiled. The essence fit the animal perfectly. "You're pretty good at this."

"What about Fuji-senpai?"

That took a lot more effort. Ryoma stared into space, thinking. What animal was evil enough?

"A fox?" Sakuno finally offered.

While slit eyes didn't necessarily equal smiling eyes, the personality seemed to match. "Yeah. That works, because you never know what he's up to." Ryoma said. He still carried a grudge. "And Inui-senpai's a blowfish."

"A… blowfish?" Sakuno repeated. Sure, the hair was spiky, but…

"Because he's poisonous and tastes horrible."

She giggled some more. Ryoma actually had a sense of humor behind that cold exterior. "Ah… What about Tezuka-buchou?"

Ryoma shook his head. "Don't know. Even animals have more facial expressions than him."

Sakuno laughed.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

It was a fun and exciting trip, but it had finally come to an end. All of them had recovered from the icy escapade a few days before. (Except for Sakuno, she was still limping a little.) The regulars thanked Suzume's mother for having them and piled into the bus one by one, and headed home. The train ride was around 7, and at that point most of them slept through it. The few that didn't continued to play poker or some other road game. Kimiko pulled out a monopoly game out of nowhere, and several of them got engaged into that for a while.

Kikumaru was going through his leftover snacks when he pulled out a packet of popcorn. "Man, I really have a craving for this right now… why isn't there a microwave here…" he whined.

"Oh!" Kimiko exclaimed. "I have a microwave in my bag!"

Everyone awake dropped what they were holding.

"_What_?"

"You have… a microwave…" Momoshiro repeated, just to be sure. "In your bag?"

She fumbled through her giant sausage bag and pulled out a box-shaped electronic device, which was clearly a microwave. "I knew this would come in handy!" she said, presenting it with a flourish. She peeked back into her bag. "I guess I really didn't need the portable fridge, huh…"

"…" all of them replied.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

When they got to Tokyo Station, they divided themselves into several carpools. (Except for the Momoshiro twins and Echizen who decided to walk home.) Izumi once again found herself in the same car as Fuji. Tezuka and Aiko were also with them, but that seemed unimportant.

However, the car ride was uneventful, and for that she was thankful. When they got to the Morioka residence, Tezuka and Izumi both got out. Tezuka only had to walk a short distance to get home. His home estate was only a street away, after all. Aiko lived closer to Fuji's house and remained in the car.

"Thanks for the ride." Izumi said, with a small bow towards Fuji's sister.

Fuji climbed out of the car as well. "I'll walk you to your door."

Her heart rate accelerated. "There's really no need. I'm perfectly capable of walking the last 20-so meters alone."

He just smiled and said, "I'll walk you there anyways."

She didn't reply and just began walking. He caught up to her and put his hand in the small of her back, escorting her. His touch sent a jolt through her, and she stiffened slightly. He noticed.

When they reached her door, she turned around and hoped for a quick good night. "Well… I'll see you in school in a week…"

"Izumi-san…" he said in that tone she feared, that tone that made her stop breathing. "Have you thought about… what we talked about the other day?"

'_How could I forget_?' As if their conversation in the hallway hadn't been plaguing her mind for the last couple days. Why else was she avoiding him as much as possible?

For a moment she stared at the ground, gathering her courage. Finally, she brought her eyes up to his. Her eyes were slightly glazed, unfocused. She looked at his eyes, but she forced herself not to see, to be blind. Maybe that's why she was able to tell the lie. "Fuji-san, things are fine this way… Why don't we just leave them as they are?" And before he could reply to that, she gave a polite bow, and slid the bamboo door shut behind her.

Leaning against the bamboo door, she was sure she had shattered into a million pieces.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So Nee-san," Fuji said conversationally at the dinner table. It was just the three of them; their parents had gone off on a trip themselves. "How are things going between you and Kimura-san's brother?"

Yuuta shot him a look.

"Um… that is…"

Fuji opened his eyes, concerned.

"We… we've been having a few problems…" Yumiko said softly. It was then that Fuji noticed how quiet his sister had been on the whole drive back. He had been too caught up in what Izumi said to have noticed beforehand.

"What happened?"

Yumiko exhaled. "Well, I guess it started when I saw him kissing another girl at the subway…"

"What." Fuji's voice suddenly became steely.

"Oh no, it wasn't him. It was his twin Ren, actually. I made a mistake. But… then there were some insignificant fights… he said some things… I said some things… It just—it's not working out. And he hasn't called… so I guess it was never meant to be, anyways." She forced a smile.

That's when Fuji looked at her. Really looked at her. Her hair seemed lank and unkempt. The skin under her eyes seemed stretched and dark. She'd made no attempt at makeup. Her posture seemed slightly slouched, as if bending down in mourning.

She looked miserable.

His cell phone rang. Excusing himself, he answered the call and walked into the adjacent room. "Just the person I wanted to talk to."

"Does your sister look as bad as my brother right now?"

"That depends. How bad does your brother look?"

"He didn't even ask me to put out my cigarette, and he _burned_ the meatloaf for dinner. He's supposed to be f*cking professional chef."

"That sounds bad."

"You have no idea, because you don't have to _eat_ it."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"How do you do it!" Sayaka yelled, frustrated at the Kikumaru that was hopping around on the street tennis courts. She had called him out that afternoon in order to help her randomize her movements somehow. He never seemed to do the same movement twice. How? _How_? Even his signature moves, like "Kikumaru Beam" didn't look the same the second time he did them. She, on the other hand, performed the same sequence of movements over and over. She, like Reina said, performed her routine on the courts.

"Hmm…" Inui said. "Momoshiro-sa—"

"Sayaka!" she insisted for the 5th time. Yes, she'd called Inui out to practice too. She needed all the help she could get. After losing to Reina _again_ a couple days ago, she knew she had to work on it somehow.

"Sayaka-san. Let's call your back handspring, twist and triple salto—sequence A," he was saying. "Your full twisting double back and roundoff—sequence B." He went on to list some more sequences, up to the letter E. Sayaka was surprised that they all fit the safety regulations, and when she asked him about it, he replied, "I took the liberty of checking into the rhythmic gymnastics rulebook." He picked up his own racket and entered the court. "Let's see if this works."

Inui served the ball gently, and she returned it with her forehand. Immediately after the ball left her racket, she tossed it into the air and prepared to start off with a simple front flip.

"Sequence C!" Inui called out.

She froze, quickly trying to remember. There wasn't much time. '_Oh right!_' Tucking her head in, she performed a standing back flip, a back tuck, and caught her racket to hit a backhand before performing a single front salto.

Inui hit the ball and called out "Sequence A!"

"What!" she yelled, already airborne. "I can't perform a standing back handspring _now_!"

"Sequence A!" He repeated.

"Damn it…" Sayaka cursed under her breath. She would have to pull herself directly into a back flip, skipping the handspring part. It went against her plan. She'd never done it like this before, and she wasn't sure if it could work.

Her eyes flicked towards the racket, which was revolving as it fell through the air. Another revolution and it would be within perfect grasping distance. She might barely make it. '_Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT_.' She'd _never_ tried to do anything without planning first.

With a shout, she threw herself into a back flip, her hands touching the ground for a brief second. As soon as her feet landed, she whipped her arm out and _almost_ missed the racket, but managed to catch it with her fingertips. Her fingers tightened the grip. The ball was flying close.

She twisted into a corkscrew spin. The ball was already too close. By the time it bounced, it would be behind her. On impulse, she somersaulted forward and slammed her racket into it directly.

The ball streaked by Inui. He was unable to move.

It hit the fence with a sharp rattle.

"S-sayaka-chan…" Kikumaru said. "That… that… what _was_ that?"

Inui smiled, touching his glasses briefly. "That wasn't part of your routine, was it? Looks like the data needs to be updated."

Her heartbeat gradually went back to normal. She flexed out her fingers. "It just… it just came to me. I don't know. You forced me to do sequence A at an impossible position… so I changed it…"

He continued to smile. "That's all there is to it. That's all you need to do to evolve your style into something unpredictable."

Kikumaru leaped onto the court and pulled her into a giant hug. "Sayaka's data seal—broken!"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Echizen Ryoma was speechless.

(Note that this almost never happens, for Echizen Ryoma can usually come up with a snide remark or two in any situation.)

But he was rendered speechless.

Ryuzaki Sakuno, _Ryuzaki_ of all people, was beating him in tennis.

All right, a tennis video game, but _still_.

A quick glance told him that Ryuzaki didn't even know what she was _doing_. She was just button mashing the controllers, and yet her character was pulling off service aces, smashes, and… was that a _drive volley_?

Good god.

Ryoma tried to button mash as well, but his character seemed to disobey him completely. In fact, the movements were so skittish and choppy that it looked like his character was performing a retarded version of the jitterbug. After Sakuno scored her final winning ace, Ryoma sighed and put down the controllers.

"Mada mada dane," she said, pointing at him. "Right?" She laughed.

Ryoma scowled, but couldn't help smiling a little. He reached for his tennis racket and stood up. "C'mon. Let's play a bit of real tennis."

He needed to redeem his dignity.

Not that it would help him much. For god's sake, he was playing against a girl with a beat up ankle.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The new school term had begun. Many of them were trapped in a transition phase between break and school life, causing their homework to pile up. Both Momoshiros were classic examples of this. Momoshiro ran into Sayaka's room and begged her for her English homework, only to find that she didn't do it either. Kikumaru, much to Oishi's distaste, resorted to quickly copying Fuji's answers before class.

Izumi was an exception. She went back to her late night studying with caffeine as her best friend. She finished all her work and was already reviewing for tests a few weeks later. When she wasn't working, she would go to the gym's aerobics room, turn up the music and dance. (Occasionally bringing her racket with her) Other times, she practiced _kyudo_ at home. She also borrowed the novel that Tezuka got from Sayaka for Christmas and read it during her free time. She found plenty to do, and yet she felt… empty.

She cautiously lifted her eyes up to the tensai a couple seats away. He was facing forward, listening to the teacher's every word with the same smile he always wore. They hadn't spoken in about a week.

She actually had expected him to treat her the same way even after what she said. Instead, he seemed to have started to give her the cold shoulder. It shouldn't have surprised her… and yet it did, somehow. She didn't talk to him either; she wasn't one to take the initiative.

'_Two can play at this game_,' she thought to herself. If he wouldn't talk to her, she wouldn't talk to him. It suited her just fine.

Well… somewhat fine.

When class ended, she carefully packed up her papers and books.

"Fuji-senpai?" Suzume had entered the room. Several third years turned to stare; second years weren't normally allowed on the floor. However, Suzume wasn't one to respect the rules anyways. They talked in quiet voices, quickly and rapidly, as if discussing something urgent. Then he smiled.

'_See...?_' Izumi told herself. '_It's not as if that smile is reserved for you. It's the same for anyone.' _She clutched her books to herself.

Suzume jerked her thumb at the door, indicating that they should leave and do whatever they were planning. He nodded, putting a hand in the small of her back, and leading her out. Fuji was a gentleman, perhaps a sadistic one, but still. She never should've read too much into his moves.

'_It's like Yumiko said. It's not as if you're receiving any special treatment._' She thought.'_Put yourself in another girl's shoes for a day and he'll treat you exactly the same._'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

She didn't realize exactly how true those thoughts were until the next day.

Really, she'd only meant to buy some cranberry juice (which she loved), and non-fat cartons of milk for her mom (which she hated), and maybe pick up some flowers for Yukimura, whom she would visit later.

How was she supposed to know that she would bump into _Fuji Syusuke_ at the supermarket?

She suddenly froze. Since when did she begin referring to him as _'Fuji Syusuke' _in her mind again?

Before she got to know him better, he was always _'Fuji Syusuke_'. Someone you could only call by first _and_ last name in your mind, or with your friends (although Izumi had none). Maybe it was because on the academic ranking list, they listed first and last name. Maybe because that's how all the fangirls said it. Maybe because it made him seem all the less approachable, and that's just what Izumi wanted. Fuji Syusuke was Fuji Syusuke.

Except… after she'd joined the team, after she'd modeled for him and actually _spoke_ to him… he'd become 'Fuji-san'. Even if she'd always said his name like that with her lips, it'd taken time for her thoughts to speak like that as well.

Now it seemed that they had gone back in time. Before the whole female team had formed. They were treating each other the same way as they did back then.

While she'd been lost in her thoughts, he had seen her and had begun approaching her. It was then that she saw he was not alone.

A gorgeous looking girl was on his arm. '_Gorgeous_' was too vulgar a term to describe her. Her face was a bit angular and fierce upon close inspection, Izumi realized, but she had a figure that all the girls in the world would've died for. She was about an inch taller than Fuji—Fuji Syusuke—himself, with _long_, lean—not skinny, slender with just a hint of muscle—legs that seemed to make the very ground below them holy. Her perfect S line body was graced with full curves that redefined the golden ratio.

Izumi had always thought of Akane as curvaceously attractive, Reina as stunningly beautiful, and Chiharu as naturally pretty. But this girl must be a goddess.

Only Fuji Syusuke could get a girl like that.

"Izumi-san," Fuji said with his usual smile. "What a coincidence to see you here."

"Same goes for you." she replied. Her eyes drifted over to the girl questioningly. Was it just her, or did she latch on to Fuji's arm tighter when Izumi came into view?

"Oh, this is Konishi Ayako…" Fuji said, introducing the two. "Ayako-san, this is Morioka Izumi, a classmate."

_Classmate, _he'd called her. On top of that, he'd referred to Ayako by her first name. Izumi willed her facial features not to react, even though something inside her was plummeting.

Ayako shook Izumi's hand coldly. "I model for him." she clarified, a smug smile gracing her lips.

Izumi struggled to keep her surprise hidden. "I see…"

"Izumi-san used to model for me too," Fuji added, and Ayako gave her a sharp glance.

Izumi forced a tiny smile. "Used to." she repeated. Then she gave both of them a polite bow and carried on her way as normally as she could.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

After a couple days, even Kikumaru noticed a sort of tension between the two. Sometimes when he was talking to Izumi in the classroom, then Fuji walked over, she would end their conversation abruptly and leave. Once, when they were walking together in the hall, he mentioned that he was meeting Fuji at the front gate. She had suddenly bid her goodbye and walked in the direction of the back gate, leaving him standing in the hall.

Even now, as they were packing up for tennis practice, Izumi had distanced herself from Fuji, _literally._ She was practically at the other end of the classroom. Kikumaru looked back and forth between the two, confused. "Is something going on?"

"No," Fuji said with a smile. "Nothing. Isn't that right, Izumi-san?"

"Let's go to the courts now!" Kikumaru said, switching to a cheerful tone that he hoped would disrupt the awkward atmosphere.. "It's the first practice after break!"

Izumi picked up her test wordlessly (a couple points higher than Fuji, she noted, slightly satisfied) and headed to the courts on her own, leaving the two boys in the empty classroom.

During water break, Kikumaru found her at the fountains. "Morioka-chan, something wrong. What is it?"

She unscrewed the cap to her water bottle and held it under the stream. "Nothing."

How could she tell him? The way Fuji was ignoring her, as if he'd just switched his affections to everyone else in an instant. Wasn't that what she wanted? Hadn't she tried over and over to convince herself that he was only nice to her because she was his photography subject, because he was getting something out of it? How could she admit that she felt used? Now he'd switched to a new model, without even telling her. How could she admit that she felt betrayed? How could she… how could she admit to him, to _herself_ that she felt… jealous?

How could she admit that… she made a mistake?

"You can tell me. We're friends, aren't we?"

'_Friends._' "I guess…"

He pouted. "What do you mean, you guess?"

Her water bottle was overflowing now. She retracted it and screwed the cap back on, hoping that after she finished he would forget about the question. After all, Eiji had a small attention span. However, he was still staring at her.

"Eiji," she finally said. "You don't need me as a friend."

"Something's wrong. You look so sad these days." He reached out to pull her into a hug.

"I don't need a hug." Izumi said, pulling away.

"Maybe you'd feel better if you had one!" he tried to say cheerfully.

"No, I wouldn't."

"Maybe!" he whined.

"No!" She glared.

Kikumaru's eyes widened.

She hadn't glared at him since… since that time he followed her into the girl's bathroom. That time after Fuji had beaten her on that test. That time she still seemed so icy, so cold to him. He didn't even notice how much she had changed since then. And now it felt like they had traveled back in time, like their friendship progression had been thrown into reverse.

However, the glare was less harsh this time. Like a cracked coconut with the soft flesh showing, he could see her vulnerability through her eyes. She looked so desperate.

"What has Fuji done to you?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Life was confusing. Tennis was confusing. The fact that she got a D on her math paper wasn't confusing to her—because the test had been confusing.

Yet Sayaka felt even more confused by the exchange happening in front of her, which resembled a lover's quarrel. Or at least, Kikumaru seemed to be the one trying to console Izumi and she seemed to be… angry with him? Were the two dating? But what about all the rumors that Morioka and Fuji were going to be an item in the near future? Maybe a love triangle?

The two could be competing for her, she thought as Kikumaru tried to hug Izumi and the latter. pulled away. Although she didn't understand why Izumi would go for Fuji instead… And Kikumaru seemed like the type to back down if his best friend was interested.

Kikumaru could be gay, she reminded herself. He certainly dressed well enough to be. And certainly that "Oishi oishi oishi" nagging was a hint. Confusing, confusing, confusing.

But surely Oishi was straight? Akane was probably practical enough to check his sexual orientation before she developed a crush on him. So maybe it was one-sided love for Kikumaru?

What was even more confusing was when Kikumaru saw Sayaka standing there with a puzzled expression on her face, he blushed slightly, and threw up his hands and said, "It's not what you think!"

How did he know that she was suspecting him of being gay? This was confusing.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"You're… _LEAVING?_" Tachibana Ann all but shouted, a betrayed look on her face.

Sakiko shrugged a little. "Well, trying to."

"WHY?"

She shuffled through the application papers in her hands. "I love tennis, but I don't think I'll be going pro. And Fudomine is a public school. It doesn't look as good as some other schools on my application."

"Lots of people get into good schools here!"

Sakiko shook her head. "People who do don't have a delinquent background. You're a second year; you don't understand. I have to get into college, and that means sacrificing a lot."

Ann didn't know what to say so she turned away.

It was a while before she finally spoke again. "Will you still play tennis?"

Sakiko smiled. The smile seemed so foreign to Ann; happy with a touch of wickedness. She'd never seen such an un-Sakiko-like expression before. And then she said, "Hmph. As if I could give up tennis."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Tezuka watched the injured members of his team carefully, especially Chiharu. This was the first practice after break, and he didn't want any of them to overexert themselves. He watched Chiharu the most carefully because she was the number one seed, and he couldn't afford to lose her at this point in the tournaments.

At least, that's what he told himself.

She looked different. No, she looked the same. He shook his head. Ever since that incident on the mountains, he had never been able to look at her the same way. The way the sun outlined her hair in glowing incandescence. The way sparkles of exhilaration danced in her amber eyes. He knew not to take anything for granted anymore.

"Chiharu…"

She looked up, brushing the sweat from her brow.

He didn't know what he wanted to say. Instead, he cleared his throat and said, "Take a break. That's enough for today."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Izumi-san, can we talk?"

She didn't even look at him as he sat down next to her. She pretended to be watching Inui and Momoshiro's match extremely closely. "What is there to talk about?"

"Eiji said… that you got angry at him earlier?"

"I didn't."

Fuji let out a breath. "You've really gone back to the way you used to be. Izumi-san, I don't know what you expect me to do."

Her gaze hardened as she kept staring ahead, into the distance. It was easier than lying to his face. "The thing is, I don't expect anything from you..."

For a while, they both stayed silent. Then, out of the blue, he suddenly said, "So are you free to model on Friday?"

"Eh?" Her head snapped up as she looked at him in confusion. "What… I thought… Isn't… Konishi-san modeling for you now?"

"Not anymore. I only hired her to do a few shots for a new concept I'm trying out. But it doesn't really work for me." His smiling face was back. "So, Friday?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, Suzume…"

Suzume turned around and saw the last person she expected to see.

"_Saki-senpai_?"

The white-haired girl inclined her head in a nod through the green fence. "Play a match with me."

Suzume was speechless for a moment. "Uh… wait, _what?_ Now? Are you _serious_?"

She held up a ball. "One point. That's all I'm asking for."

Suzume glanced at Tezuka. When he nodded, she smirked with anticipation. "All right, let's do it."

They took one of the free courts at the end of the area. Although Tezuka already yelled at the others to continue practice normally, most of them were craning their necks, watching the two girls with curiosity.

"Tezuka, are you sure it's a good idea?" Oishi asked worriedly. "We're playing St. Rudolph soon."

"It's one point. It should be fine."

"But—"

"I think this match is vital to her as a tennis player," Tezuka cut him off, explaining. "If we want Kimura to grow, we have to let her have this match."

"I'll keep a watch on her." Chiharu offered, and he nodded.

Suzume bounced the ball on the ground a couple times. She wasn't sure why she agreed to play against Saki. She still had mixed feelings toward her senpai. After learning why Saki had undergone such a huge change, she felt that she couldn't lay any blame on her senpai anymore. It was like this huge ball of hurt had been floating around and yet now it was evaporating. She couldn't hate Saki.

At the same time, she was excited. She hadn't played new Saki yet and she wanted to see how she would fair against the Nitouryuu style. When she saw it on the courts during the Fudomine matches, she remembered thinking it wasn't as strong as Saki's old style. This might be her chance to defeat her.

"You sure you want me to have the serve, Saki-senpai?" she asked, taunting her. "What if I hit an ace?"

Sakiko adjusted her bangs before lowering her stance. "You haven't hit an ace on me since you were seven, Suzume," she said. "Don't get your hopes up."

The dark-red haired girl paused, ball clutched in her hand. That didn't sound like the new Sakiko. That sounded like the old Sakiko.

Suddenly she felt apprehensive. Clutching the ball tightly, she swung her racket back and served.

Sakiko was already flying across the court to the exact position of the ball. Of course she was, Suzume told herself. Why was she even surprised at Sakiko's skill? How many times has she lost to that skill herself?

White pigtails swishing, she tossed her racket to her other hand in a smooth motion…

'_Nitouryuu…_' Suzume barely had time to think, turning on her heel and shooting off in the other direction.

…and hit the ball back.

Suzume spat out a curse as her racket connected with the ball. The force was strong, causing her arm to strain under the pull of the strings. The ball exploded from her end and shot across the net once more.

"Kimura-senpai is a wasp…" Ryoma murmured quietly. Sakuno glanced at him. They exchanged a smile. "Because she's reckless and wild and ready to kill herself for a point."

All eyes went to Sakiko's end.

Suzume froze in shock.

"What is Matsuyama _doing?_" Momoshiro suddenly shouted.

Ryoma lifted his eyebrows.

Sakiko had anticipated it. She swung her racket in a _horizontal _way causing the crowd to gasp. The frame of her racket slammed into the ball.

"I need to get this point!" Suzume leapt for it. The ball seemed to disperse in a flash of bright yellow in front of Suzume's eyes. It connected against the ground, hissing, then bounced irregularly to the side, meters from her racket.

The crowd had hushed.

"My point." Sakiko said, her lips quirking into a small smile.

"Well…" Momoshiro said after a while. "I think we learned where Kimura got her reckless style from…"

Suzume pushed herself up from the ground, staring at her senpai. '_That move… that style… that _personality_… It's like she never changed…_' "That… that was your old style, wasn't it? You've gone back. You'r—"

She was once again shocked r into silence when Sakiko took out her rosary and said a small prayer of thanks.

"Saki-senpai, I don't understand—"

"Suzume," Saki said patiently. Then she smiled. "Thank you."

"For… what?" she asked, almost suspiciously.

"You helped me realize that just because I have new beliefs doesn't mean I have to give up my old ones," she explained. "I can be strongest if I make the best out of both."

A shadow of disappointment blurred Suzume's features. "Then you haven't really gone back…"

"You can't go back," Sakiko told her. "You just keep moving forward."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_A few days later…_

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane-senpai?" Sakuno timidly said to the older girl, now that they were the only two left in the changing room.

"Hmm?" Akane toweled her ginger hair dry as she spoke. "What's up?"

Sakuno fidgeted a little. "Is it true… that Matsuyama Sakiko-san is transferring here?"

Akane paused for a second, then went on toweling her hair like nothing was wrong. "Where did you hear that?"

"O...Obaa-chan mentioned something…"

The former captain folded her towel into a thinner strip and placed it around her neck, shaking out her ginger hair. Tiny droplets of water were flung around, some of them hitting Sakuno. "Gomen," Akane said. She picked up her tennis uniform and put it in her bag, turning away from the girl. "It's true that Matsuyama is trying to transfer here."

"I… I see…" Sakuno bit her lip. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, her eyes looking downward. "Ano… will she be joining the tennis team?"

"You mean to ask: 'will she be replacing you'." Akane said, with her back to Sakuno. She turned around, fixing her eyes on the freshman. "Right?"

"H…" She lowered her head. "Hai…" Sakuno admitted shamefully.

Akane stayed silent for a while. In that instant, Sakuno knew. Akane didn't need to answer. The silence provided her an answer already. Her hand reached for one of her braids in sudden anxiety and dread. She'd made so many friends. She wanted to stay on the team so, so much.

"Matsuyama is a strong player…" Akane finally said. "She plays number one singles for Fudomine. If we want to be the best, we need to have the best on our team."

She knew that Akane would say that, but hearing it still hurt. Akane was always being blunt, always being practical. Sakuno felt unwanted tears sting her eyes and forced them back.

The sun was setting, casting a pink-orange incandescence into the room. The ginger headed girl zipped up her bag and slipped it over her shoulder, preparing to leave.

"You could've replaced me a long time ago, am I right?" Sakuno suddenly burst out, extremely close to tears. "There are plenty of people that can play better than me out there! Even in this school, there are better tennis players!" She breathed in sharply, trying to contain her tears.

Akane looked over her shoulder. She was against the light, so Sakuno could barely make out the expression on her face. The sunlight spilled out from behind her, forming a bright background so all that could be seen was her graceful silhouette. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Sakuno."

She breathed in, looking confused.

"It's true," Akane continued. "There are people in this school that may be able to play better than you. They can probably run faster, hit the ball harder, whatever. But that's skill that you can train for _easily._ Sakuno—"

Akane took two steps closer to the girl and bent down so they were eye level. "You have something special. You have this… _feel_ for the ball that rivals Chiharu's. That talent is hard to come by. And I can't name a single person who loves the sport more you do." She winked, got up and walked to the door again. "Sometimes that's what makes the difference."

Sakuno clutched her racket tighter, feeling inspired.

"If Matsuyama is admitted into Seigaku, I'll put her in the ranking matches. If you can take more than four games away from her, she won't be on the team for the next month and you can keep your spot." She smiled. "And if you want something enough, Sakuno, I have no doubt that you can keep it."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Click. Click._

Izumi had never felt more puzzled in her entire life.

First, she pretty much told Fuji that they should not be friends. And then she did the same with Eiji. And then Fuji actually listened and was distant. And _then_ she regretted doing it. And now Fuji was treating her normally. He'd even asked her to model for him again. Everything was the same. He'd waited for her after practice and he made small talk on the way to his house. They'd sipped at green tea with Yuuta before going into the studio. It was as if she never asked him to stay away from her. Weird how sometimes you can get what you wish for.

He was working on a new concept, with shadows this time, so there were several more light fixtures in the room than usual. All around, she could see three or four sets of her own shadow, circling her, taunting her.

Why had she agreed with Fuji, anyways? Why was she letting herself do this? It wasn't fair to either of them. But she…

She _wanted_ to be friends.

Izumi suddenly broke out into a cold sweat as her forehead contracted. She began to see spots in the corner of her eyes. '_Damn it…_' she thought to herself, recognizing the symptom. She was on the verge of one of her fainting spells. She blinked a couple times, trying to force herself to snap out of it.

"C-could we take a small break?" she asked Fuji as nonchalantly as she could. She needed to sit down for a bit.

He was peering at the image on the back of his camera. "A few more, okay? I'm almost done. I just want to finish before the sunset light in the window disappears completely. Then we can wrap up."

Izumi gripped the edge of the dress she was wearing and managed to nod her consent despite the wave of nausea that just hit her. Her breath shortened. But what was she supposed to say to him? '_Um, I'm going to faint. Could we stop for a moment?_' The words sounded ridiculous even in her mind. Fuji was an artist. He knew that the light and color could change in an instant. She refused to be the victim. '_Just for a few more minutes._' she encouraged herself.'_You can hold on for a few more minutes._'

The glowing spots invaded her vision and began to cluster in front of her eyes. She heard Fuji telling her to look at the camera and turned her head toward the general direction. She couldn't see anymore. Her eyes went out of focus. Fuji said something else but she couldn't hear it—the flashing spots in front of her eyes were already taking up too much of her concentration. Her mind blanked out and the next thing she felt was falling.

She heard the thud of the camera on the ground and the quickening footsteps toward her side. She felt his arms lifting her upwards. She barely managed to utter the words "I'm _fine_" before her vision went dark.

The last thing she remembered thinking was that Fuji was surprisingly strong.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Aiko moved off of the bike at the workout area and went back to the weights. She needed to work some more on her arm muscle strength. Although she knew she was stronger than all the girls on the tennis team—and some guys too—she wanted to be stronger. She wanted to surpass everyone else.

The gym was surprisingly quiet. Only a couple other people were here. She doubted anyone else worked out quite as religiously as she did. Except for Kaidoh, but he was a beast. He didn't count.

"A-Aiko-senpai!"

She looked up, not pausing from moving the dumbbell up and down. It was Sakuno. "Oh, hey girl!" she said in English. She didn't like to call her Japanese friends by their names much, for fear of mispronouncing it. Everyone else because "girl". It probably defied some ancient rule of etiquette her mom would reprimand her on, but none of them seemed to mind.

"Ano…" Sakuno always felt a little intimidated when talking to this senpai in particular. Aiko seemed extremely fierce and Sakuno wasn't very good at English anyways. "What weights should I use?"

Aiko pointed to some much smaller weights. "You might wanna take your wrist weights off first., though," she warned, eyeing the pink bands on the girls arms. "You don't wanna overstrain your muscles."

"S-Sorry?" Sakuno tilted her head, feeling a bit shameful. Ryoma would have understood.

Aiko pulled out her electronic dictionary and punched a few words in. In a second, a tinny voice said, "Wrist weight… you take off… muscle strain…"

"Oh!" Sakuno said, and then she couldn't help it—she giggled. "Sorry, the voice is funny," she explained in Japanese.

"This whole dictionary is funny. When I typed in "take off" the suggestion that came up was "your clothes" ". Both of them laughed. Aiko rolled her eyes. "Really, it assumes I'm a pervert."

After discarding the wrist weights, Sakuno tentatively picked up a dumbbell and tried to copy Aiko's movements with it. At first it seemed too easy and she pondered about going for a heavier weight. But gradually the dumbbell seemed to get heavier. Soon she was tired.

Suddenly the tinny voice said "_Sa_-ku-no."

"Eh?"

"Sa-ku-no…" Aiko echoed the electronic device. "…-san?" She looked at the girl in question.

"Chan!" She insisted.

"Sakuno…-chan…" Aiko repeated. She gave an exasperated sigh. "What's with all these different honorifics! You Japanese people are so formal."

Sakuno giggled. "Aiko-senpai is really f-formal too…" she said, tripping over the words a little.

"Not really, once you get to know me. I was just so intimidated by all you Japs." She switched arms and Sakuno did the same. "Even though I'm half, I feel different. Like a whole world away."

That wasn't too hard to understand. "I'm scared of Aiko-senpai's English!" Sakuno told her in a reassuring manner and Aiko laughed.

"Hey, you should lift your arm a bit more…" she pointed out, pausing her workout and adjusting Sakuno's arm. "It's more effective in building up your muscles. Why are you here anyways?"

Sakuno didn't quite understand what Aiko was saying about muscles, but she was glad her senpai was helping her. "Ano… I just want to get better, I guess."

"Don't we all…" Aiko said.

"How's your partnership with Kimiko-senpai?" Sakuno asked.

"Oh, Kims?" Aiko had shortened her name to something much more American. "She's really good. It's working out pretty well. I still want to play singles sometimes though, so I hope I can do that. Sorry our partnership didn't work out."

"It's fine! I partner better with Sayaka-senpai, I think. We should all just try out best! Fight-o!" Sakuno lifted her dumbbell in a victory pose only to flinch at how heavy it was, causing them both to laugh.

"I like working out with you," Aiko said. "You should come more often."

She beamed.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi bolted upwards, taking in her surroundings in a desperate bewilderment. She had been lying down in a bed in what appeared to be Fuji's room. The shades had been drawn and the lights were turned off. He was nowhere to be seen, however. The darkness outside told her it was evening already.

It started coming back to her… the wave a nausea and then falling… She remembered that he was at her side, helping her. Had he told her parents yet? No doubt her mom would make her go back to the hospital. She hated it there.

An uncontrolled hot tear slid down her cheek, followed by another. She hated being the victim. It was like a cheesy Asian drama, how the girl keeps fainting into the guy's arms and it's all cute and romantic. Another tear rolled its way down. It wasn't like that at all.

It _embarrassed _her. She didn't want to be 'special'; she wanted to be just like everyone else. She didn't want to get a lighter training menu. She didn't want others to go easy on her. She was just a normal girl. Well, somewhat normal.

Her eyes and nose were red. She brushed away her tears roughly, refusing to appear sad in front of him. Fuji's room was extremely tidy, so she figured that she should fold the blankets. It was just when she began getting out of bed that the door opened.

"Ah, you're up?" Fuji turned on the light, causing her to be blinded for a brief moment. She shielded her eyes, keeping her face turned slightly away so he wouldn't see the tears. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm _fine_." she emphasized, her voice shaking slightly.

He must've detected something was wrong because he walked towards her. She could only turn so far away to hide herself. When he saw the tear streaks on her cheeks, his tone became more concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Hot tears of embarrassment filled her eyes as she nodded.

He didn't question her and merely said, "Okay." The bed shifted slightly as he sat down next to her, although he still put a certain amount of distance between them. It was some sort of innate urge that made him want to comfort her, want to hold her, wipe away her tears and tell her that everything would be okay, as he had done so many times with others. But she was different. She probably would not have welcomed his concern, his sympathy, and he did not want to ruin their friendship anymore. It was like the last of winter ice on a sunny spring day, so fragile that one puff of wind could snap it forever.

He normally was adept at knowing how to act around people, but around her he was completely lost.

When her breathing had calmed down, she asked, "Did you tell anyone?"

"No. Yuuta's in his room and Nee-san's out for the day."

She breathed out, slightly relieved.

"If you ever want to talk—"

"Thanks," she cut in. "But no. Can we pretend that it didn't happen?"

He hesitated. She didn't seem like she was a sickly, fragile thing. It really wasn't his place to berate her about her health, anyways. "Sure…"

'_Just add that to the list of things we pretend never happened…_'

A beam of light skimmed across the window as a car drove by outside. "Fuji-san," she suddenly said. "Wasn't Konishi-san modeling for you?"

"Oh, her," He nodded. "But it was getting too expensive, and I was tired of that concept."

"You… _hired_ her?"

"Yup. She's one of Nee-san's contacts. Why?"

"…nothing. I just… I thought you would've told me if you were done photographing me." That bitter feeling was back. She had to admit it to herself. She had been jealous.

"But I wasn't done," he said quietly and she looked up. He was still smiling, yet his tone had a much more serious air. "As I photographer, I know how fast things can change. For example, your hair—" She self-consciously felt for it as he was talking. "—could have a green sheen one instant, and then look ebony the next, or have an orange tint, depending on the light. So I like to experiment with different concepts. It keeps me from getting bored. But,"

He paused, his face earnest. "I could never get bored of photographing you."

Her heart began to beat erratically. "I…" She swallowed. "Why? I've been so cold to you… why are you still asking me to model? Why are you being so nice?"

He smiled. "I just want to be friends." Another beam of light traveled across the room, outlining their shadows against the wall. "What about you? Why did you accept?"

Her eyes went to the window, waiting for the next car to pass. It wasn't just lighting and color that could change in an instant. It was everything. They both knew this.

"I think… I want to be friends too…"

He extended his hand to her in a handshake. "Friends, then."

She took it and smiled slightly. "Friends."

Their hands lingered in the handshake. His thumb traced a semicircle around the back of her hand. Her heart beat even faster. She looked directly at him, as if anticipating that something was going to happen.

Abruptly, the door opened and their hands dropped immediately. "Aniki? It's time for dinner. Nee-san brought pizza."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Play tennis with me."

Ryoma blinked.

Not because it was surprising to see Sakuno on his doorstep with a racket, they'd practiced tennis plenty of times. It wasn't the wrist weights or ankle weights that surprised him either, as she'd been wearing them more and more often nowadays. It was the fact that she wasn't asking him to play tennis with him.

She was _demanding_ it.

His eyes glinted in anticipation. "Sure. Let me get my racket."

About an hour later, Ryoma found out he was actually _tired_. Sakuno was hitting the ball with a ferocity he'd never seen on her before. Her shots actually had some sort of strength in them. He parried them back, "I think Ryuzaki is a beaver!"

"Eh?" She scrambled to get the shot he'd hit to the corner; his statement had caught her by surprise. She whacked her racket into it. It was so close to the baseline he almost missed it. "Why?"

"Because," He hit another ball back, feeling the vibrations along his arms. "You're hardworking…"

-pok-

"…and busy…"

-pok-

"…you look small and cute..."

She blushed.

-pok-

"…but you've got a bite!"

Her final shot streaked by him. He could've reached it if he really tried, but he let this one pass. "That was a good rally." he said, moderately impressed.

"Thank you." Sakuno adjusted the grip on her racket. "I want to keep my spot on the regulars. I want to be better."

Ryoma smiled. She'd finally reached the point where she wasn't just playing for fun, she was playing towards a goal. He nodded. "That's good goal. Where did it come from?" he added curiously. It was a pretty sudden change in her.

"Akane-senpai said that… if I could take four games away from Matsuyama-senpai, I could stay on the regulars…"

Ryoma grasped the ball in his hand, frowning slightly. "I feel like Ito-senpai says a lot of things…" He couldn't help but feel uneasy around the ginger haired senpai. Everything she said seemed to have the effect she wanted it to. It was like she was some sort of psychological analyst. Almost Fuji-like. He shuddered. "She's like a snake."

"No!" Sakuno said defensively. "She means well, really! Besides, snakes are silver-tongued and Akane-senpai is blunt. It doesn't work."

"Then what do you think she is?"

"A raccoon. She can be sly and clever but when it comes down to it she'll take matters into her own hands."

"It works." Ryoma shrugged, tossing the ball up. "We still haven't got one for buchou…"

"Right…"

"Anyways," He held the ball up. "Shall we continue?"

"Hai!"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Well, looks like we'll be playing you soon, Yuuta!"

"Aniki…" Yuuta said in a voice that made him open his eyes. "Be careful. Tell Izumi-senpai and rest to be careful too. St Rudolph is dangerous."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kimiko hit the last ball into the net. Now, she was able to make the ball travel farther and farther up so she could hit it lower into the net. The giant spin on the ball caused it to roll itself up. However, this one was another fail. It fell down after reaching the very top. She gave a frustrated sigh. "So hard, so hard…"

A small object hit her chest and bounced off. She picked the lollipop up from the ground, grinning at Kaidoh. He was always bringing her lollipops whenever she was frustrated. "Maybe I should pretend I'm frustrated sometimes just for the free candy!"

He growled at her and she giggled.

"Oi!" Coach Ryuzaki yelled across the courts. "Gather around here for a minute!"

The regulars all circled around a whiteboard. Kimiko had to squeeze into the front so she could see.

"Here's the roster against St. Rudolph. We have doubles two, Inui and Kaidoh. Doubles one, Kikumaru and Oishi. Singles three, Momoshiro. Singles two, Fuji. Singles one, Ryoma. Tezuka will be sitting this one out."

Tezuka put his hand over his arm slowly.

"For girls, we've got Ryuzaki and Momoshiro in doubles one. Komboi and Marui in doubles two. Singles three, Ito."

There were some murmurs of excitement. Akane had never played an official match yet.

"Singles two, Morioka. And singles one, Watanabe."

"Hey! I want a chance to crush those St Rudolph b*tches!" Suzume burst out.

"Language!" Oishi reprimanded.

"Kimura and Oshiro, you'll be playing in mixed doubles with Kawamura and Tezuka if all goes well." Coach Ryuzaki glanced at Tezuka when she said this.

'_Doubles with Tezuka?_' Chiharu thought to herself. She secretly looked forward to that.

"Back to practice!" Tezuka commanded.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Later, in the middle of practice, Ryoma suddenly pointed at Tezuka and screamed "Eagle!" in sudden inspiration, causing Sakuno to choke on her drink. He got laps.

But it was worth it.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**A/N:** Revieeeew! Thank you!

Yay for character development! Go Sakuno!

I've been writing this chapter for a long time, but I always put it on hold and went to do other stuff. Oh well. ST RUDOLPH MATCHES NEXT. Ooh, villan school. I do love the St Rudolph boys (even Mizuki, who is a cheating bastard) but the girls are going to be pretty darn evil. Because I don't want to introduce any more characters, and I'm always down for writing a decent b*tchfight. Haha. Anyways, keep it up.

Btw, I was in USC KASA dance off 2010. We practiced 8 hours a day. That's probably why I wasn't updating. Check out the dance vids on youtube if you're bored.


	21. Captain Akane

**Disclaimer: Don't own PoT, only wish I did.**

A/N: HOLY MOTHER**** I updated! Anyways, I have to tell you guys something. I was really stressed these few weeks about my Poli Sci class. I haven't been doing so well in the class and I was seriously considering dropping it. And then I reread all your reviews, and they gave me courage to continue.

So this chapter is my way of saying thank you.

Unfortunately, not much romance here. Mostly character development and plot. I will fill other chapters with romance soon. This chapter is all about Akane. And a little bit about Sakuno.

**To Catch A Falling Star Chapter 21: Captain Akane**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"That's enough!" Tezuka commanded as the regulars finished their 18th lap. The regulars stopped, leaning over and panting heavily.

They were warming up for the St Rudolph matches that would take place in around an hour. Due to the much colder temperatures, Inui had suggested that warm up take place earlier in order to avoid injury. They had already arrived at the tennis park courts and were waiting. The girls were watching, as their matches would take place in the afternoon. They were all bundled up in their scarves and mittens. Their breath caused little wisps of steam to appear in front of their mouths.

Tezuka surveyed the regulars in front of him. "What's the matter with you?"

All of them looked up in surprise.

"Tezuka's right," Coach Ryuzaki confirmed. "You shouldn't be this tired right now. You run 30 laps every day for practice. Is something going on?"

"Yeah, they're all menstruating…" Suzume said sarcastically, but everyone ignored her.

"Wait," Akane said, her eyes narrowed. "How many of you ate breakfast?"

Only Kikumaru raised his hand.

"That's why." Akane said with a nod. She turned to Horio. "Could you lead the freshmen and go get some sandwiches?" She beckoned to some of the freshmen on the girl's tennis team. "Could you go with them? And try to be quick."

The freshmen trio and four girls including Tomoka took off for the convenience store.

"Guys, I know we had to meet earlier today, but you guys have to eat. You can't crush anyone on an empty stomach." Akane sighed.

"I overslept…" Both Momoshiro and Echizen said at the same time. Several of the other regulars nodded or looked down guiltily.

"Guess I should've bought you guys proper alarm clocks for Christmas."

The freshmen soon came running back, their arms weighed down by all the sandwiches they had to carry. Horio's bags were dragging the ground as he stumbled to the regulars. "H-here…" he managed to wheeze out, gasping for air.

Eager hands grabbed for the contents in the bags. Horio and the other freshmen rubbed their arms, which were aching from the weight.

"It's good training…" Inui said. "Especially if you want to become a regular in the future. You're going to have to increase your muscle training." He indicated toward the regulars, who were now having a chow session on the sandwiches. "A lot of them have wrist weights and ankle weights on right now." Especially Ryuzaki, he thought to himself. '_Ryuzaki has the same weights as everyone else right now. She's really challenging herself._' He would've recommended starting the brown haired freshman off with some lighter weights, but she insisted herself that she wear the same ones as everyone else.

"Are they going to keep wearing them while they're playing?" Horio asked, his mouth half full of a sandwich he had stolen for himself.

"That depends…" Inui's gaze was elsewhere.

"On what?" Tomoka asked. Her gaze followed his to the crowd of brown and white decked students that just walked into their view.

"On how good _they_ are."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Tezuka, we meet again." Akazawa said, extending his hand. "St. Rudolph is going to repay Seigaku for last time."

"We look forward to it." Tezuka replied coolly to combat the scoffing tone in Akazawa's voice.

The guys greeted each other with friendly threats and conversation. Yuuta promised Fuji that he was in for a tough match, and Fuji smiled as always. Yanagisawa loudly announced his aspiration to play Momoshiro again and that "this time he wouldn't get blow away".

"Tezuka, I need to talk to you for a moment." Coach Ryuzaki pulled him to the side.

The girls seemed to be locked in a staring match, each team trying to stare down the other. Was it their previous encounter with Hina that gave them a sour impression of St. Rudolph, or perhaps something else? Had Hina relayed twisted information about Seigaku to her team? Whatever it was, there was a definite hostility between the two teams that had not met.

"Le-let's have a good game." Oishi stammered, unnerved at the animosity in the air.

"Hmph. We'll see about that." Suzume said, flicking her eyes towards Hina.

She was unfazed. "We win at whatever we do."

Suzume scoffed. "I'm sure you do. Good attempt with your data scheme, by the way."

Hina flushed puce. "Better than your suicide attempt, right?"

Several people swiveled their heads around in shock. Suzume turned pale. She thought she could sneer off any insult, but she certainly wasn't expecting _that_ one.

"Kimura?" Sayaka asked, eyes wide and concerned.

"I'm sure Daddy would be happy to hear that his little girl was such a _coward_," Hina continued, her face twisted into a sick smile. "After all—"

"You SHUT UP!" Sayaka had no idea what happened, but the next thing she knew she had launched toward that insufferable girl, white hot rage boiling through her veins.

"Oi!" Momoshiro locked his arms around his sister, restraining her with difficulty. He could understand Sayaka's anger, however. That was a low blow. Momoshiro almost wanted to lunge at Hina himself, but it was against his moral code to hit a girl. (Although he was thinking that his moral code needed revising at this point.) He glanced around for their captain and coach. He knew they would help intervene, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"Not. Okay." Sayaka ground out, still trying to move towards the girl. They all knew Suzume's father was a sensitive subject.

"You might've erased my data, but I've got what I remember," Hina said with a smirk. "How _else_ would I know about the little mistletoe incident? It must've been really hard for you to be rejected then," she said to Chiharu, whose face was bright red with embarrassment. "He didn't even want to honor a silly little tradition. Maybe he just finds you distasteful."

BAM!

No one reacted that quickly.

Before any one of them had realized what happened, Suzume had tackled Hina to the floor and was lifting her fist for a second punch.

"Kimura!" Oishi frantically tried to stop her.

"Hey!" Some of the St. Rudolph girls were reaching for their captain in attempt to pull her out from under the furious Suzume.

"What are you doing!" Tezuka's voice boomed across the area, startling all of them. Except Suzume, who had now landed her second punch on Hina's face and was going for a third. He wrenched the girls apart almost entirely by himself. Hina was cowering, hands over her face.

Even as he pulled her away, Suzume still had her eye locked onto Hina's. "Bitch." she spat. "You mess with us, I'll kill you. I swear I will."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Suzume, what were you thinking!"

Suzume glared at her. "No one talks to Chiharu-senpai like that. No one talks to anyone I care about like that and gets away with it. Not on my watch."

"This is a tennis tournament." Akane said, frustrated. "Not a boxing match. What you did was unacceptable."

"It wasn't," she said obstinately. "That bitch had it coming."

Akane's face was white with fury. She took a breath to calm herself. This was probably the angriest Suzume had ever seen her. "Kimura. People are going to give you attitude at tournaments. It's all psychological trickery."

"They can give _me_ all the attitude they want. But if they give it to anyone else, they better not mind me giving a little something back." She cracked her knuckles.

"You could've gotten us disqualified from the tournament!"

"Then it would've been worth it."

Akane slapped her.

A collective gasp ran through the people that happened to be around them. Suzume was struck silent from the impact. She never thought that her first wound of the day would be from her own captain.

"You need to stop being so selfish and start thinking about the team more." Akane told her harshly. "We worked too hard to get here, and I'm not going to let you jeopardize that."

Suzume glared at the ground instead, not quite daring to meet Akane's brilliant turquoise eyes. '_How am I being selfish!_'

"I don't care what kind of crap the other team is giving you, you _deal_ with it. I won't let you be a disgrace for the team. And if you can't respect that," Her eyes met Suzume's with ferocity. "Consider yourself suspended."

Hot tears of anger sprung into her eyes, and she kept her gaze down so Akane would not notice. She only stood up after the footsteps faded. Without warning, she slammed her fist into the green wire fence, causing the fence to rattle vigorously. "Damn it." she cursed underneath her breath, tears threatening to fall. Her cheek was now a mottled pink.

She only wanted to _protect_ them all. How was she being selfish? Suzume never thought those few words would've hurt her so much. '_Maybe they hurt… because they ring true._' It felt like a small part of her heart had been rubbed raw. Was she only trying to defend her friends? Or was there some kind of… _image_ that she had to uphold that caused her to act in rebellious ways? She didn't want to know the answer.

"Hey." A voice said behind her. She whirled around. It was Aiko.

"Hey." Had it been anyone else, Suzume probably would've lashed out towards them. Even Chiharu. She would've told Chiharu it was about time she started standing up for herself. But Aiko was different. Suzume felt like she didn't know the senpai enough to even carry on a normal conversation with her, much less pick a fight.

"I like you," Aiko said, surprising her. "That girl deserved it. I just thought I'd let you know."

Suzume felt her anger dissipate a little. "Thank you."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane, was that really necessary?"

The former captain looked up at Chiharu. "Yes, I think it was."

"You really hurt Suzume-chan…"

"Suzume-_chan_ will be fine." She resumed to adjusting her racket strings.

"How can you say that? Akane, how could you do that to her?" Chiharu's voice cracked in the middle.

Akane didn't reply, and Chiharu knew that she didn't need to. Akane may be a great friend and was always there for her when she needed advice, but she ruled her team with an iron fist and crushed any challenge to her authority.

But she had never seen Akane strike anyone before, and it scared her. Would Akane strike _her_, if she also disrespected her? She felt like her best friend was now somewhat of a stranger.

"You're judging me." Akane suddenly said, her turquoise eyes analyzing Chiharu's face.

It was Chiharu's turn to be silent.

Akane put down her racket. "I know it's hard for you, especially since you are protective of Suzume. But put yourself in my shoes for a moment. Can you honestly tell me that you would've done anything differently?

Suzume was a reckless person, with the attitude of a delinquent and the temper of one too. Even with Chiharu reprimanding her all the time, she disrespected her senpais and peers constantly. Who was Chiharu to judge whether Akane had the right or not to discipline her teammate? "I don't think I'd make a good captain…" Chiharu finally said. "I don't know how I would punish my friends."

"You're wrong," Akane told her, letting her face settle into a smile. "You'd make a great captain. At least for right now, I'm glad to have you as a teammate."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, are you all right?" Momoshiro said as Suzume returned to them. He was finishing up his stretches; the game was starting soon. The rest of the team had pulled their jerseys back on to keep warm.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She jerked her head towards Akane, who was standing a few meters away talking to Oishi. "To be honest, I deserved it."

He eyed her up and down. She frowned. "What? I already told you I'm fine. Stop staring. Don't make me give you a taste of what I gave that St Rudolph bitch."

"All right, you're back to normal." he grumbled. "Athough Ito-senpai really freaked me out. She's scary. I never thought…"

"You wait until you see her play tennis," Suzume said darkly. "_Then_ you'll know who's scary."

Momoshiro's brow was wrinkled thoughtfully. "Wait, didn't you beat her in tennis?"

"Doesn't mean it was easy."

He was quiet, thinking it over. Suzume pulled out a cigarette and put it between her lips. She felt for the lighter in her pocket, the metal cool against her skin. However, instead of lighting it, she just tossed the lighter up gently and caught it again and again in the palm of her hand.

"So, if Oshiro-senpai and Reina-senpai both beat you, but you beat Akane-senpai, and Sayaka tied with you… does that mean Oshiro-senpai's ranked number one, Reina-senpai number two, you and Sayaka number three and Akane number four?"

"It doesn't work like that." Suzume said, clicking her lighter on and staring at the flame. She looked over at the other players on the ground, all talking with one another. Mentally, she drew strings in her head, connecting the dots. "Ryuzaki is obviously at the bottom right now. Next is Kimiko, but only because she's exclusively a doubles partner."

Her eyes skipped from the pink haired second year to a dark haired third year. "Morioka-senpai has always beaten Kimiko but has always lost to Akane. I feel like she and Komboi-senpai are probably tied in skill." Her eyes landed on the dark skinned senpai. I haven't played either of them, but I think Namazu-chan is around their level. Then there's Akane, me, Reina-senpai and Chiharu-senpai."

"Oh, so you're better than Sayaka now, are you." But he shut up when she fixed a glare at him that said, '_Don't question it._'

"Only thing is, Reina-senpai can't beat Akane. And I can't beat Reina-senpai. Not that I haven't tried. Chiharu-senpai destroys us all, however." She took the cigarette out of her mouth, pondering. "I think Reina-senpai _can_ beat Akane-senpai, but she just needs to get rid of some issues."

Momoshiro watched her in interest. He'd never seen Suzume look so… _animated_. The unspoken tennis rankings between regulars really excited her, despite what she might say otherwise.

Suzume, as if catching herself, suddenly changed her tone. "But whatever. It doesn't matter. I'll get on top, no matter what." She proceeded to light her cigarette.

He blew out her flame. She tried again. "Stop that." He blew it out again.

"Che." She gave up and pocketed her lighter.

He smiled.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno was just at the vending machine buying herself a drink when a shadow loomed over her.

"You're the freshmen on the team, right?"

A tall brunette was addressing her. From the jersey she wore, it was clear that she was on the St. Rudolph team. It wasn't the jersey that made her cautious though. It was the look in the girl's eyes, like a snake that just spotted a juicy mouse. Sakuno immediately felt threatened and took a small step back. "Y-yes…"

"Get your racket." The girl turned and began walking towards some empty courts.

"Ano…" Sakuno replied timidly. Quickly, she glanced left and right, but no one she knew was around. "Akane-buchou said that… she said that we weren't allowed to play matches outside of—"

She spun around.

"I said, _get your racket_."

Sakuno was startled by the brusque tone in the girl's voice. Fearful, she clutched her racket to her chest and followed the girl into the court.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Nya, Oishi! Did you hear?" The lively redhead pranced over to where his doubles partner was filling up his water bottle. The matches were due to start in less than half an hour and he wanted to make sure he had enough water to stay hydrated.

"What is it, Eiji?"

"Ito-chan slapped Kimura-chan just now!"

"What!" Oishi's eyes scanned where the other regulars were grouped, but was unable to discern any signs of commotion. "Just now?"

"A few minutes ago!" Kikumaru insisted. "It was really scary."

"Why?" Akane didn't seem like the type of girl to pick a fight meaninglessly. And knowing how much she cared for her team, Oishi didn't think that she would raise a hand against them.

"Kimura-chan was being disrespectful again."

"But still!"

Kikumaru shrugged. "Maybe that's just how she disciplines them."

Oishi didn't know what to say. The more he got to know Akane, the more he was seeing these different sides of her. And he wasn't sure he liked that. He'd never seen Tezuka raise a hand against anyone on the team before. "I know _I_ could never do that…" The way she established her authority was almost _militaristic_. Oishi knew he didn't like the feeling of that team dynamic. He always felt like the Seigaku team was a family. How could one little disciplinary action change all that?

"Nya Oishi, why are you so upset?" Kikumaru asked, big eyes scanning his friend's face. "So she disciplined her team member. She has the full rights to, you know?"

"But… she's not even captain anymore…"

He knew why he was upset. He was upset because he was afraid that he'd never look at Akane the same way again.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ever since Kimiko had mentioned her sister, Reina had felt… strange.

Miyuki was someone easy to get close to. She was the one Reina always talked to and shared every secret with. She was the one that would motivate her to reach the top, to surpass her. She was Reina's support system and her competition, all in one. She was, in a sense, Reina's pillar.

Then one day she vanished without a trace.

And Reina collapsed.

"Reina?"

She snapped back to reality. "Yes?"

Akane took a seat next to her. The boys had already begun their game, but she was pretty sure they didn't need her support to win this one. "I have a bad feeling about this game. I think you're going to need to go all out today. Can you do that?"

Reina turned to Akane sharply. "Are you certain that I'll have to play?"

Akane stared straight ahead. "I don't know. We put Izumi in Singles 2 this time. If we lose one of the doubles matches—"

"You and Izumi will take care of the rest."

Akane let out a short laugh. "I hope so. But if one of us falls, you're going to have to go all out," She turned and fixed her stunning eyes on Reina. "All out. Understand?"

Reina hesistated.

There were only two times Reina had played to her true potential. One was when she crushed Suzume in a spectacular 6-1 victory. The other was when she was forced into a tiebreak with Akane.

"All out, you hear me? Don't play like your sister, and don't play like Inui." Akane put her hand on her shoulder in a reassuring manner. "You're strongest when you play like _you_."

Reina flinched. What was wrong with playing like someone you looked up to? What was wrong with playing like someone who was strong?

"And one more thing," Akane added, observing her. "Call your sister."

"What!" It was the most random thing at the most random time, and yet it conjured an immediate dread. Reina felt a cold sweat break out on her skin.

"Call her." Akane reached into the black-haired girl's bag and pulled out her cell phone. "Do it now."

"Akane, I—"

"You've been distracted ever since Christmas." Akane told her. "Don't think I haven't noticed. You haven't been on top of your game at practices, and we can't afford to have that right now. Here," she located Miyuki's number on Reina's phone and dialed it. Then she passed the phone back.

Reina took the phone and terminated the call. "I'll be more distracted if I talk to her! We haven't spoken in at least two years; what do you expect me to say?"

"You spent two years trying to suppress your thoughts. And now that they've resurfaced, are you still going to keep running?" Akane ran a hand through her hair. The look in her usually piercing gaze was gentle. "Reina. We both know that you're more skilled than me at tennis. The only reason you haven't been able to win is because you always have something else on your mind. And your lack of '_lexica_' right now proves me right."

Reina only ever avoided '_lexica_' when the situation was distressing.

They listened to the distant _pok _sound of a rally back and forth for a moment. The black-haired girl let her hands wander across her racket for a brief second, feeling the string and the frame. How many times had Akane broken her mindset in tennis? Countless times, surely. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself on the court, realizing that in her mind, all she saw was her sister standing across the net from her.

"There's this huge gap between you two. And that gap isn't going to bridge itself. You have to tell her how you feel," Akane told her. "Only then will you get this weight off your chest." She nodded towards the phone. "Call her."

If Akane was a lesser friend, she would've let it by. She would've let Reina cower away and hide and pretend that everything was okay. But Akane was a good friend, a great friend, and Reina knew this. She swallowed and held the phone up to her ear.

There was a brief dial tone. Then a familiar voice, "Hello?"

Words escaped her at that moment. Her heart pounded in her ears, and her lips were frozen.

"Hello?"

Akane reach over and gave her hand a squeeze. This helped her gather her courage.

"O…" Her voice cracked. She bit her trembling lip. "Onee-chan…"

"_Reina_?" her sister said in disbelief. "Reina, is that you?"

"Yes… yes, it's me."

"Two years. _Two years_, and not a single phone call. Not a single reply to a text, not a single email. Reina…"

"I'm sorry…" Reina said, taking a deep, shaky breath. "I was hurt, I was angry… and you just _left_."

"Reina…"

Her voice got stronger. "You just _left_ me to fend on my own. How could I… how am I supposed to talk to you after that? I didn't know what to do."

"I'm so sorry…"

Reina wasn't done. "But you know what? I realized… I _can_ stand on my own. I'm not your shadow anymore. I don't _need_ you anymore."

She heard breaths on the other end of the line. Not dry, wet.

"I have a match today, and I'm going to play my _own_ style. I won't let myself follow you anymore."

There was a long silence. And then her sister said,

"Good luck. I look forward to playing you when I return."

And for the first time in a long time, a smile appeared on Reina's face.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sayaka and Aiko were taking a walk around the perimeter. Aiko had been a little upset about being put into doubles _2_ this time instead of doubles 1. Sayaka convinced her that they often switched it up based on information Inui gathered. Even the Golden Pair played in doubles 2 a few times.

"Hey… isn't that _Sa_-ku-no?" Aiko asked, pronouncing the syllables in a truncated manner. She pointed.

Sakuno appeared to be having a match with a girl from St. Rudolph. "Yeah…" Sayaka said, suddenly concerned. "I wonder what's going on…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno fell to the ground, panting hard. Her racket clattered onto the ground beside her. Sweat dripped down her chin as she desperately tried to gather herself together.

"6 games to love," the tall brunette sneered, taking special pleasure in saying the word "love". "And it lasted about…," she glanced at her watch. "Fifteen minutes? Looks like we don't even need to _try_ to beat you guys."

It was all Sakuno could do not to cry right then and there.

"Destroying Seigaku will be easy." the girl said as she slung her racket bag over her shoulder and left the courts.

Sakuno throat constricted and the tears began to flow. Near the end of the game, she just wanted to get a single point, just to _prove_ herself, and she wasn't even able to do that. A tear dropped to the ground. She had never felt so stupid, stupid to even _think_ she was getting good at tennis.

There was a sort of numbness that came from losing. The emptiness in her eyes was like that of a dragonfly that had just had its wings torn off. She didn't know how she was going face St. Rudolph later in the afternoon. She didn't even know how she was ever going to pick up her racket again. She no longer had any desire to play tennis.

This was different from when she played Akane. That was when she was still inexperienced and naïve at tennis. She had improved at lot in both confidence and skill. But as it turned out, it still wasn't enough. '_I thought I could… I thought I might have a chance now that I've been practicing much more…_' A hiccup rose in her throat. '_How could I have thought that I would catch up to the others someday? How could I have thought_ _that I might have a chance to take four games away from Matsuyama-senpai, when she beat Suzume so easily!_' She might as well quit the team and let Saki take her place. Clearly, she was no asset to the team.

A flashback occurred in her mind. She once again had that image of all the girls running practice laps, with her trailing farther and farther behind, until they disappeared into the distance.

They were all ahead of her. And ahead of her, they would remain. She was alone.

Her teardrops fell like rain onto the empty court.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno's impromptu match had not gone unwatched.

Ryoma was alarmed. He was just getting more Ponta when this match caught his attention. Interested, he decided to watch and see what happened.

Sakuno had lost in fifteen minutes flat.

He was alarmed. Firstly, he didn't expect St. Rudolph to be so good. Secondly, he didn't expect Sakuno to be unable to score a single point, despite playing rather well. But what alarmed him the most was the look in Sakuno's eyes.

They were dull.

Lifeless.

As if the tears that streamed down her cheeks were leaking out her very life energy. The look in her eyes was of hollow acceptance, like what he'd imagine to see in the eyes of animals waiting in line at a slaughterhouse. Almost as if she accepted that she would never be good at tennis. That it was her fate.

He hated that look, and he was going to put her insufferable, happy, naïve smile back on her face _right now._

Footsteps quickened beside him, and he realized he wasn't the only one that had that idea.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Suddenly, the fence swung open and footsteps entered the court. Sakuno yanked her head up, bewildered.

It was Akane; she must've seen the whole thing. A blush of shame crept into her cheeks as her eyes filled with new tears. '_She's the one who motivated me, who encouraged me that I could continue to be a regular. She must be so disappointed in me…_'

The look in her senpai's eyes was fierce, yet her expression was unreadable. Abruptly, she pulled out her racket and tossed her racket bag to the side.

"On your feet, Sakuno."

Sakuno choked back a sob and stumbled to her feet, gripping her racket.

Akane served a rocket fast serve. It shot by Sakuno's arm before she even had a chance to react. She served another one, equally fast. The girl in braids made a half-hearted swing, tears still blurring her eyes.

"Return it!"

Sakuno felt another sob heave through her body as Akane's curt command reached her ear. She put a little more power into her swing but missed the ball entirely.

"What are you doing!"

She yelped as another shot whizzed by her, the ball slamming into the ground with enough force to knock her out.

Oishi and Eiji, who had just won their match, gathered around the fence with some others. "What's going on?"

Sayaka quickly explained.

"Should we stop them?" the vice-captain asked worriedly.

"No." Sayaka said firmly. "I've never seen Ryuzaki-chan look like that before," She hugged herself, as if experiencing a chill. "She looked so… _devastated_ after she lost against that St. Rudolph girl. Like she never wanted to play tennis again."

They stared at her in shock. Sayaka looked up with determination.

"If Akane-buchou can bring back her love of tennis, then let her do whatever it takes."

Back on the courts, Akane was relentlessly hitting ball after ball past Sakuno. Her shots sped like bullets onto the opposite court.

"You aren't trying hard enough!"

"Hit the ball, Sakuno!"

"Return it!"

Her orders stung like a slap. Sakuno rubbed her arm against her eyes to rid them of tears, gripping her racket harder. A ball bounced low in front of her, and she dived for it, her arms getting scraped by the rough ground. She missed.

"Get up, Sakuno! Get _UP_!"

She pulled herself to her feet once more and ran after the next one. This time, she managed to return it, only to have Akane effortlessly hit it back in an even more powerful shot that sped past Sakuno.

"This isn't the Sakuno I had faith in!" Akane shouted as she served again. "This isn't the Sakuno that I know!"

Akane's commands were starting to merge with the voices in her head, voices that always yelled at her to push herself a little harder, to hit the ball. In the last game with the brunette from St. Rudolph, she could no longer hear those voices of encouragement. Now they were back, melting her doubt, dissolving her negative thoughts.

Her eyes suddenly focused on the next shot that came her way. With a cry, she smashed her racket into it the ball, vibrations shaking her very bones. The ball shot to the left corner and bounced into the fence, untouched.

"Nice." Ryoma said quietly.

Akane's eyes went to the fence when the ball was embedded. Then she turned back to Sakuno, smiling slightly. "That's more like it."

'_Did I… did I just put a shot past Akane-buchou?_'

Akane met her at the net. Sakuno looked up and saw nothing but sincerity in those fiery eyes. She reached out her hand. It didn't feel like a handshake. It was more like Akane was lending her a hand and pulling her out of an abyss.

"You belong on the Seigaku team. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise."

When Sakuno walked by him, Ryoma looked into her eyes and once again saw fire. Her passion had been rekindled. He didn't say anything, but nodded once approvingly towards her. And she smiled her insufferable smile once more.

For now, it was enough.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Meanwhile, Aiko had her own business to take care of. After the tall brunette had left Sakuno on the courts, she tracked her down. She was surrounded by her Japanese-speaking friends, but Aiko wasn't intimidated. She simply jerked her thumb back to another set of empty courts, challenging the brown-haired girl.

Upon entering the courts, Aiko immediately slammed three winners past the girl, shocking her. Ten minutes later, she had the girl on her knees. And then she left.

Sometimes, you didn't need to speak the language to get your message through.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

They say that the best leaders do not lead, but inspire.

Right now, as Oishi looked at Akane, he realized that she was one of the best.

She may have walked on a twisted path, but her intentions were straight and true. The minute he saw the renewed light in Sakuno's eyes, Oishi knew. He knew that he would always look at Akane differently.

He knew he would always admire her.

It was like what Yamato-buchou said to Tezuka once. Once you become captain of Seigaku's tennis team, you never stop being captain. Wherever you go, wherever life takes you, you've always been a captain and always will be. In his mind, he saw the three of them merging together and vowed to achieve their level of leadership.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I can't believe the boys got beaten by Seigaku again. Seriously Mizuki, are you good for anything?"

"I can't believe Mizuki got _owned_ by Fuji again! Man, that was funny!"

"Never mind that now. What do you know about the Seigaku girls?"

"A decent amount. Hey, didn't Shizuka go and have a little fun with the freshman girl?"

"Yeah she did, only to get _destroyed_ by that black girl they have on their team. (_snicker_)"

"Shut up. That girl has the strongest friggin' swing I've ever seen. You try her. I bet she's Singles 1."

"No, Singles 1 is going to be played by the girl obsessed with Tezuka. Pigtails, blue-ish hair? That one. She always plays Singles 1. The black girl is a doubles player."

"I didn't think they'd have someone that strong on their team… and in doubles, too! Mizuki, we're going to need all the help we can get."

"Not to worry… I've got all the information right here."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

To say Sakuno rekindled her passion was an understatement. She and Sayaka brought their best game onto the court that afternoon. It might've been the pressure. Seeing the Komboi-Marui pair annihilate their opponents at a spectacular 6-1 game must've given them _some_ sort of pressure.

Aiko have definitely proven herself capable of Doubles 1. She and Kimiko had an almost flawless partnership now. In fact, Kimiko was beginning to accommodate her style to assist Aiko, so that Aiko had the smashes, the winners, and the spotlight. At the same time, Aiko was controlling the pace and the spin for Kimiko's signature moves.

When Coach Ryuzaki suggested that Aiko play singles for the next game, she half-expected the African American girl to jump for joy. (In a figurative sense.) Instead, Aiko merely shrugged. "Maybe someday," she said to herself in English, eyes drifting over to her partner. Kimiko waved. "We'll see."

Doubles 1 was a bit harder to win, but the Ryuzaki-Momoshiro pair reigned in a nice, clean win at 6 games to 3. Sayaka's style dazzled the players, and Ryuzaki's new motivation accelerated her strength. While they both had openings and flaws, they made up for that in trust. After every point they lost, Sayaka would turn to Sakuno with a smile and say, "It doesn't matter! We can afford to give them a few points, right?" Sakuno was at her best condition in that relaxed atmosphere.

"Nice game, Ryuzaki." Ryoma said as she exited the courts.

She beamed. "Thank you, Ryoma-kun!"

"Eh? Did Ochibi just compliment Ryuzaki-chan?" Kikumaru bounced over and peered at Ryoma, grinning. "Heheh, Ochibi has a soft spot!"

Ryoma caught himself. His smile faded and he pulled his cap down.

Suddenly whispers circulated around the crowd. All of them turned around to see Akane walking into the court, her golden-red hair tied back and her racket ready.

"No way… isn't she the girl's team captain?"

"What's she doing in Singles 3?"

"She can't be _that_ strong. She played in Doubles 2 during the district tournaments, right?"

"Ne, Inui-senpai, how come Akane-buchou is playing so early?" Kimiko asked.

Inui flipped through a few pages in his green notebook. "We wanted her to snare the third win as soon as possible. We don't want St. Rudolph to pull any tricks on us."

"Yeah, after what they pulled this morning…" Suzume said darkly.

During their Doubles 1 game, Mizuki tried to break Kikumaru's focus by saying something to him during a break. No one knew what he said, but the redhead looked extremely indignant. He proceeded to double fault during his serve. It was only when Oishi calmed down his partner that the regained the flow of the game. Both Momoshiro and Akane were needed to restrain Suzume from doing justice.

"I'm excited. I haven't seen Akane-buchou play yet." Sayaka said, practically trembling with anticipation.

"Most of us haven't." Inui said, pulling out his pen. "I too, am excited." It was funny how he said it in a monotone voice.

"Then get ready," Suzume warned them. "Because even though I won her, there's a reason why I never want to play her again."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"One set match!"

Her opponent had won the first serve. It was the girl that had paid Sakuno a little "visit", Shizuka. Akane stepped to the receiving line and prepared herself. That girl beat Sakuno in fifteen minutes. Akane had beat Sakuno in around the same time, but that was back when Sakuno had just joined the team. This girl had played the new and improved Sakuno, and still took no effort into destroying her. She was not to be taken lightly.

"Ne, is it bad that Ito-senpai doesn't have the first serve?" Kachiro asked curiously.

"Nope, it doesn't really matter," Chiharu told him. "The end result is the same."

Horio scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder what kind of style Ito-senpai has…" He put his hands on his hips and decided confidently, "I bet it's like Oishi-senpai's! She's probably the reliable type, being practical as she is…"

Chiharu chuckled. "Akane's style is nothing like Oishi-san's. Well, it's true that she's steady and a counter puncher, but she has one of the most frightening styles of us all."

Shizuka's serve suddenly sliced by Akane.

Ace.

Akane whipped her head around to wear the ball landed. A fast shot, aiming for the center of the left box. It was a good choice. The opponent had already guessed her less favorable side.

"Whoa, that was a good shot…" Katou commented.

"It's one that Akane-buchou should've been able to reach though." Sayaka said, frowning. '_I've seen her play before. She's fast. What's going on?_'

Shizuka served again. Akane took a few steps to her right and returned it in a powerful forehand, causing a particularly loud –_pok_- to echo through the courts.

"There you go!" Sayaka proclaimed. That was more like the Akane she knew.

Suddenly the ball was smashed into the far side of her court, silencing everyone. Akane's eyes widened. She had been meters away. She bit her lip and let out a irritated sigh. In order to win this game, she was going to have to read her opponent's movements better. And she _needed_ to win this one. There was a huge responsibility on her shoulders right now.

"That girl is really good at net play…" Aiko pointed out softly. They glanced at the opposite court. True enough, Shizuka was at the net. She had rushed there after her serve.

Another serve came her way, and Shizuka once again approached the net. Akane reacted quickly this time. Her blue-green eyes shifted left and right, looking for an opening. She hit a cross shot to the left side.

Her opponent leapt up and smashed the ball into the area behind her, making the movement look surprisingly effortless. The former girl's captain felt her lips part in shock. Determination flashed through her eyes, and she ran to try to get the ball anyways. She missed it by at least ten inches.

A point later, the game went to St. Rudolph.

"Damn…" Momoshiro remarked. "That St. Rudolph girl is pretty good…"

"It's bad for Ito-senpai!" Horio said.

"She should hold her opponent at the baseline…" Fuji suggested. "That's what you do with net players." '_Weird… she partnered with a net player for a long time,' _he thought, thinking of Kimiko. '_She should be able to combat this…_'

"It-it's okay!" Oishi reassured them. "We-we'll catch up."

The next game went by just as quickly. Akane was now down to 0-2.

"Ito-senpai's good…" Kachiro offered, trying to convince himself. "Her opponent is just a bit stronger." He didn't want to admit that he was disappointed. After all, Akane _was_ the girl's team _captain._ He expected a much higher level of skill.

"Yeah," Oishi agreed, trying to make an excuse for Akane's mediocre skill. "I think she's being overwhelmed right now, so we can't see how well she actually plays. St. Rudolph is just a step up on this one."

Akane leapt up and smashed at a tricky lob. For a moment they thought she would win this point. Then her opponent caught her smash and volleyed it back, the ball hitting the court before Akane had even landed.

"40-0!"

Akane panted hard, glaring at her racket. She readjusted her grip a few times.

"Really? Is that the best you can do?" the St. Rudolph player scoffed, lifting her chin. She was hardly breaking a sweat. Shizuka returned to her side of the court and prepared to serve again. "Guess this will be an easy win." She threw up the ball and hit it, aiming for the left side where the lines intersected.

"That was a good serve!" Momoshiro exclaimed. Shizuka had a good eye for choosing where Akane's weaknesses were, and her serve was full of power. They couldn't depend on Akane to win this one.

Suzume smirked.

A flash of ginger streaked across the court as Akane suddenly appeared, slamming her racket into the yellow ball. It shot into the empty court, so fast it blurred into a yellow streak.

"40-15!"

Shizuka's jaw dropped.

Akane stood up straight; all signs of panting and fatigue had disappeared. "Excuse me?" she said, a casual hand on her hip and a relaxed smile on her lips. "What were you saying?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Yo-you _played_ me!" Shizuka shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at Akane. The latter merely continued to smile. "You… you _dirty, cheating_—"

"That's coming from you, St. Rudolph-san?" Momoshiro countered, just as Suzume said to the girl icily, "You _really_ don't want to finish that sentence."

"Serve and let's continue to play." Akane said, getting back into receiving position, a charming smile in place.

The brunette threw up the ball and served with all her might. "How about _this_!"

Akane swiped a backhand at the ball with as much effort as swatting a tiny fly away. The ball skimmed the line that marked the edge of the court, far from Shizuka's racket.

Frustrated, Shizuka began a new rally, and lobbed the ball upwards. The former girl's captain jumped up and smashed the ball with so much raw energy that it bounced right out of the fence, causing everyone's eyes to follow it in an arc. The crowd was silent. No one could've guessed that Akane was hiding this much skill. A point later, she won the game in a stunning recovery from 40-0.

"Game, Seigaku! 1 game to 2! Change court!"

"I can't believe it! All this time she was pretending to be weak!" Horio said. "Oshiro-senpai, why didn't you tell us? We were really worried that we were going to lose!"

"I couldn't," Chiharu responded. "Because if the opponent notices us looking too calm, she's suspect something's up."

"Besides, it was fun seeing you all so agitated," Suzume added with a grin.

"Stupid sparrow…" Sayaka muttered under her breath.

"It seems Akane-san's quite the actress…" Fuji murmured. "She had me fooled."

"It's her serve now! Quiet down and watch." Oishi told them.

Akane walked slowly to the baseline, pulling a ball from her pocket. She bounced it on the ground a couple times. Then a couple more. Then a couple more. Then she paused, holding the ball and giving her opponent a look. But instead of serving, she started to bounce the ball on the ground again.

"What is she doing?" Kaidoh questioned, annoyed.

Just as Shizuka shouted, "Will you serve already!", Akane threw the ball up and served.

It was such a simple serve, there almost seemed to be an internal groan among the regulars. Shizuka hit the ball in a sharp return…

…straight into the net.

"15-0!"

Momoshiro tilted his head, confused. Shizuka clearly showed before them that she had the skill to return such a serve. "What? That was such an easy serve. What's going on?"

"Haven't you guessed, idiot?" Suzume said. "Akane-buchou plays psychological tennis."

"Psychological… tennis?" they all echoed.

"That's right." Chiharu confirmed. "Like that," she pointed. They all watched as Akane went back to the baseline and began bouncing the ball again for a prolonged amount of time. "She's building up frustration inside her opponent."

Akane served again. Shizuka rammed her racket into the ball a little too harshly, and the ball went out.

"30-0!"

"So why did she pretend to be bad in the last two games?" Sayaka asked curiously.

"Her opponent thought she was weak and that built up her confidence," Chiharu told them. "Akane then suddenly rose to her real skill in order to crush that confidence. It's hard to recover from." She nodded towards the girl. "The whole point was to shatter her game."

Akane took her second game easily by causing the tall brunette to make errors. "Game, Seigaku! 2 games all!"

Izumi, who had been quietly observing her former captain, spoke up. "_To break an opponent psychologically is to break their entire game_," she quoted quietly. Everyone turned to look at her. "That was Akane's tennis philosophy."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So, how is she going to influence her opponent psychologically without the serve?" Sayaka asked.

"It's not as if it's anything special…" Kaidoh grunted. "Anyone can bounce the ball a few times."

"It's not just that," Inui told him. "It's her expressions… her tone… it's all catered to her opponent. She psychoanalyzes her opponent. She _knows_ Shizuka is frustrated easily. She plays on her emotions. Rather than trying to win, she tries to make her opponent lose."

"Ryuzaki, she wasn't like that when she played against you the first time, right?" Ryoma asked, his voice low so only she and Inui could hear. He didn't want to alert more people then necessary.

"Ah…" Sakuno replied sadly, remembering. "She played at her full power from the start. Then she gave me some easy rallies only to end it with powerful smashes. I was… scared."

Shizuka served and charged the net once more. Akane stepped back and lobbed the ball upwards. Her opponent jumped up.

It flew above her outstretched racket. "It's going out." Mizuki said confidently.

The ball suddenly dropped sharply. It landed, well within the baseline. "0-15!"

"Damn it, Shizuka! You could've gotten that one if you jumped earlier!" One of the other St. Rudolph players said. "Watch your timing!"

"She put topspin on that lob." Inui commented.

The St. Rudolph girl didn't give up. She ran to the net again after her next serve. This time, Akane hit a well-placed passing shot, aiming at the opening that Shizuka created to the right. Shizuka, making use of her tall frame, managed to catch the ball with two strides to her right and volley it back. Akane smashed it to the baseline. Another point.

Shizuka stomped her foot angrily. The next time she served, she stayed at the baseline.

Kimiko pointed. "Look, her net play is sealed off!"

"Honestly, if she remained at the net she would've done better." Suzume said with a roll of her eye.

"Eh? Why do you say that?" Kawamura asked.

"Akane-buchou isn't trying to seal off her net play style, she's trying to _corner_ her. Look," Suzume jerked her head towards the court. Akane ended their rally with a drop shot, forcing the St. Rudolph girl to stumble to the net once more, like a puppet on strings. "She makes the other player think that all their strategies are null, making them panic."

Fuji smiled. "If you can't play at the net, and you can't play at the baseline, where are you going to play?"

"It is even more effective when implemented against strategists." Reina said darkly.

"Right," Inui said, glancing her way. "For an opponent who bases their method on strategies, like data players, Akane-san's style will pressure them immensely."

"How do you know that?" Horio asked Reina.

"Individual perspicacity."

"What?"

"Firsthand experience."

"Oh."

Reina remembered how Akane brought the game to a new level by making her think all her data, all her _insight_ was wrong. Even though it wasn't. She stripped away every strategy that Reina tried to use. Reina jumped from tactic to tactic, trying desperately to find _something_ that would work. She began to fall into a frenzied state, making unforced errors, until Akane finally pushed her into her old style. Then, she managed to redeem herself and take the game into a tiebreak.

"Oh, it's a rally now!" Kachiro said.

The brunette tried to hit a passing shot, but Akane caught it easily and returned it. Her turquoise eyes locked onto Shizuka's. The tall girl tried for a cross shot. Again, it was returned, this time with more power. Turquoise eyes met her dark ones. Was Akane… _challenging _her? Shizuka put even more force into her return. It came back in an even stronger shot. Shizuka gritted her teeth and batted the ball with even more strength.

Suddenly it hit the net.

The game went to Akane.

"That wasn't just a rally…" Ryoma said quietly. Some of them looked at him in a confused manner, but he didn't explain. The game was heating up and he wanted to devote all his attention to it.

The ginger haired girl kept stringing her opponent along. She hit a straight shot straight to the baseline, and then a drop volley. Back and forth, causing Shizuka to tire out slowly. Then she swung her racket in a drive volley that looked like it would've broken her wrist had Shizuka managed to return it.

"Is there such thing as an aggressive counter puncher?" Kawamura asked, almost jokingly. "She looks more like an aggressive baseliner to me."

"Hmm… Buchou switches off, I guess!" Kimiko decided. "I mean, she usually waits for their game to fall apart and wins points based on errors, but while she's breaking them she'll attack relentlessly."

"Hey, why does everyone still call Akane-san 'buchou'?" Momoshiro suddenly asked, intrigued. "Sayaka, even you started doing it, and you joined after she was no longer captain."

"Heh," Sayaka scratched her head, looking sheepish. "Well everyone did it, and I guess it just sort of caught on. Besides, it feels right."

Oishi smiled. '_Once a captain, always a captain…_'

The game was all in her favor now. Akane hit another drop shot, although this one went a little high. Shizuka saw her chance. She sprinted towards her opportunity, jumped, and smashed.

The ball went straight to the green wire fence, out by meters.

"Out!"

"See?" Kimiko giggled.

"What!" Everyone gasped in surprise.

"That was a chance ball! It looked so… _easy_!"

"That ball had a strange spin on it…" Kikumaru murmured.

"Eh?" Oishi turned to him. "Eiji, is that true?"

Kikumaru blinked his eyes a few times. "Nyaa… I think so…"

"It was irregular." Ryoma mentioned, staring at the ginger-headed girl.

" 'Devil's Lure…' " Suzume said with a smirk. "That's what we used to call it."

Akane hit the drop shot again. Shizuka had anticipated it. '_This time…_' She jumped up and pinned the ball down with all her might.

The ball flew right over the fence. Ryoma reached a hand out and caught it within his fingers. The spin he felt as his fingers closed around it was neither a topspin nor a backspin.

"Out!"

"Shizuka, what's the matter with you!" Some of the St. Rudolph players were commenting.

"It's a good technique." Tezuka said approvingly.

"She hit it with the tip of her racket, right where the strings met the frame." Inui noted, scribbling in his notebook. "That's what caused the irregular spin. If the opponent were to smash that, it would spiral out of control on its spin, and thus go out of the court."

The ball bounced against Akane's racket with the hollow noise of a drop shot once more. Shizuka knew better. Instead, she ran forward and gently hit a drop shot back, tipping it just over the net.

"Thanks!" Akane grinned and slammed her racket into it with all her might. The ball exploded in a flat shot to the corner of the court, so powerful it hissed against the fence.

"That time it was a normal drop shot." Tezuka said.

"Game, Seigaku! 5 games to 2! Change court!"

Shizuka threw her racket across the court with a frustrated yell.

"Akane isn't the type to have flashy techniques. She _hides_ them," Chiharu explained. "She makes the opponent feel like they're missing easy shots. It makes them frustrated."

"Her topspin lob… Shizuka jumped early because she was frustrated, right?" Inui asked, flipping a few pages back in his notebook.

"Duh. Akane-buchou can time her techniques perfectly to her opponents' emotions." Suzume said as if it was obvious.

"That rally earlier where Shizuka's shot hit the net… Why wasn't that normal, Echizen?" Momoshiro asked.

"Because the ball was getting lower and lower," Ryoma replied. "Shizuka didn't notice, but Akane _led_ her into a trap. She led the ball into the net and disguised it as a power battle."

"Shizuka was trying too hard to out-do Akane in power that she didn't notice how close to the net the ball was getting." Chiharu confirmed.

"It's such a scary tennis style!" Kimiko said, jumping up and down. "Because you never _know_ if it's just a normal drop shot or her Devil's Lure. You never know if the ball is going out or not. You could be missing a chance ball. It's too hard to tell."

"No, it's scary…" Izumi said softly. "…because it causes you to turn on yourself. You think that you're missing easy shots. You believe that your strategies are inadequate. You get frustrated because you don't _understand_ how you could be losing to such 'simple' techniques. The lobs that should be chance balls, the passing shots that look like they have no power, the way she leads you into trap after trap… She can make you think that you're winning and then turn the tables in an instant. Then even when you _are_ actually winning, you doubt yourself. It's enough to suffocate anyone's spirit." She took a breath, memories of her defeat clouding her eyes. "She makes you into your worst enemy."

"She's the real trickster on the team." Chiharu said.

"She's like an assassin!" Kimiko suddenly proclaimed. "She'll be really stealthy but normal on the outside, and then suddenly, BAM." She clapped her hands together for emphasis.

Some of the regulars didn't get it. "What?"

"…you're dead."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Great work!" Coach Ryuzaki complimented her. "One game left! Get it, and St. Rudolph is done."

"She's got it, no worries." Sayaka declared from behind the fence.

Akane smiled as she drank hungrily from her water bottle. The water tasted a little weird. '_Bleh, tap water. Japan really needs some more sanitary regulations._'

She suddenly dropped onto her hands and knees, choking and coughing.

"Oi!"

"Akane-san, are you—"

Everyone began to run into the court. "Call an ambulance!" Tezuka barked.

Chiharu was already dialing before she heard his order.

The situation escalated for worse. Her choking noises abruptly turned into to desperate gasps for air. "Akane-san!" Oishi was frantically going through everything that he learned in first aid. If she's choking, it meant her air passage was free. So it's either getting blocked that very moment, or—

Akane suddenly wasn't gasping anymore. She was struggling for air, absolutely silent. It was the worst noise in the world.

"Anaphylaxis!" Reina said.

"That doesn't help us if we can't understand you!"

"Move." Suzume shoved him aside and did the last thing they expected. She forced Akane to open her mouth and shoved two fingers down her throat. Akane gagged, leaned over and vomited the contents of her stomach onto the sidelines. Some of the onlookers cried in disgust. The Seigaku team was too worried to feel repulsed.

"Kimura-san!"

"It's her allergies!" Kimiko said. "I remember the symptoms now!"

"No shit." Suzume scoffed.

The distant sounds of a siren alerted them of the arrival of the ambulance. The paramedics rushed to the court and carried her away on a stretcher, with Oishi and Coach Ryuzaki following. Staff from the tennis committee arrived to clean up the mess.

"Seigaku forfeits! Game and Match to St. Rudolph!"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"But Akane is only allergic to crab. H-how did she have a reaction _now_?" Chiharu asked, her brow cinching with worry. "She hasn't eaten anything…"

"Isn't it obvious?" Suzume jerked her head over to the other side, where the St. Rudolph girls looked surprisingly calm. Even satisfied. "_They_ poisoned her."

"You can't prove a thing!" Hina called.

Inui had his detective look on. He took a sip of the water. "This does taste… fishy…" He touched his glasses. "Ha. A pun."

"I can't believe you!" Sayaka shouted towards the other side. "You could've killed her!" She lunged towards the other side, but Momoshiro grabbed her around the waist. "Lemme go, Take-nii!"

"Sayaka-chan, calm down!" Kikumaru said. Then he glared at the other team. "Although… it really makes me mad!"

Several of the guys, including Fuji and Kawamura, stood around Suzume, lest she try and avenge Akane. But she remained eerily calm. Suzume recalled the sting of the slap earlier that afternoon. '_Akane-buchou wouldn't have wanted you to jeopardize the tournament for her sake._'

"So cruel…" Sakuno said, clutching her racket to her heart. She shuddered.

"That was cruel…" Kawamura nodded. "It was completely uncalled for. No tennis tournament is worth risking someone's safety for."

Fuji gave the girls on the other team an icy stare.

Reina had dropped her pencil and sketchbook and was clenching the wire fence so hard her knuckles were turning white. Inui looked over, startled. "Reina-san?"

"Unforgivable." she uttered.

"Ah…"

"Despicable. Malicious. Reprehensible. Censurable. Demeritorious. Opprobrious…" Inui secretly wondered if she would ever run out of negative adjectives.

Aiko, who was now being exposed to more Japanese swear words and curses than ever, spat out one word. "Teme. (_Bastard_).

"It was a cowardly bastard's move…" Kaidoh agreed vehemently. "Fshhhh…"

"How could anyone _do_ that?" Chiharu asked, her eyes moistening. "I don't think they did it. No one could possibly—"

Suzume shook her head. "Those bitches didn't deny it. It must've been them. They have the data."

"Not everyone is as good-hearted as you, Oshiro-senpai." Echizen said.

She sniffled slightly, trying to maintain a brave front.

Tezuka glanced at her. "Go meet them at the hospital."

"Eh?" she turned to him in confusion. "B-but the game!" It was required for them to remain at the game in order to support their school.

"She's your best friend. Go."

Chiharu let out a sad smile. "Haven't you realized? Akane… is _everyone's_ best friend." And she went.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Izumi-senpai, you can't just win this for Seigaku, but for Akane-buchou as well!" Kimiko encouraged her. "Teach those St. Rudolph… people a lesson!"

"Yeah!" Sayaka joined in. "Crush 'em!"

While Izumi enjoyed Kimiko's use of "people" as a euphemism for something else, she was not feeling very upbeat. She was anxious. Being put in singles 2 was already pressuring enough. On top of that, they expected her to avenge Akane. Plus, if St. Rudolph _did_ trigger Akane's allergies on purpose, then surely they knew about her illness as well?

"Good luck." Fuji told her, but somehow this made her heart beat even faster.

Izumi did not play well when she was nervous. And there weren't many people that could inspire her to move forward, to conquer herself.

Where was Akane when you needed her?

Think, she told herself, and forced herself to conjure an image of Akane up in her brain. '_What would she say?_' A memory flashed before her eyes.

"_You can't let your opponent take the lead._

_It's simple, Izumi. Don't let yourself lose._"

"Don't let yourself lose." she repeated out loud. Her hand tightened around her racket. With resolve in her heart and ferocity in her eyes, she entered the court.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

End Chapter 21

THANKS FOR 900+ REVIEWS! Next marker? 1000.

Please review, and if you do, I may update _very_ soon again. Who knows?

Next chapter: Izumi's resolve is not quite enough to take down her opponent. How will she face her loss? Will she consider dropping out of the team once more? Meanwhile, Reina is so pressured and angry that she reveals her original style, in order to secure the win for Seigaku.

From now on, only important matches will be written out in detail and the rest will be summarized. I think after St. Rudolph we are going to have a "rest" chapter, probably Prince of –insert random sport here-. WHAT SPORT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE? Review and tell me!


	22. Chessmaster

Disclaimer: Don't own.

**A/N:** **THANK YOU FOR 1000+ REVIEWS!** Thank you so, so much! You guys are the most amazing readers EVER. I actually cried when I read some of your reviews.

AND TO THANK YOU FOR 1000+ reviews, **I HAVE A PRESENT:**

I have commissioned an artist to draw my OCs, so you can see them how I see them. So far, she has finished four of them. **They are linked on my profile**.

Faithful reader HushedLips has also drawn my OCs out of the goodness of her heart, so check them out!

Please, please fave them and comment if you have a deviantart account. I want the artists to know that they are appreciated.

To recap: In the last chapter, Akane got poisoned and had to forfeit.

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter Twenty-Two: Seigaku's Strategist**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"This isn't want I signed up for!" one of the St. Rudolph doubles players said angrily. "Petty pranks are fine. I didn't think that you'd actually _hurt_ her!"

"There are casualties to victory." Mizuki reprimanded.

"Casualties like _this?_ It's not worth it! I wanted to beat them with my own strength!"

"Well your strength wasn't good enough, was it?" Hina's voice was sharp and accusing. "You lost to that little freshman girl. Even Shizuka beat her."

The girl looked away, cheeks reddening. "Whatever…"

"I agree." Shizuka suddenly spoke up, much to their surprise. "We went too far. Playing mind games with the weak ones was fun, but this was too much. We can't do this anymore. We need to train hard from now on."

"We should turn ourselves in…" the doubles partner muttered.

"Wait," one of the new girls said, picking up her racket. "That's not fair. You all get help in beating your opponents, and suddenly right before _my game_ you have a huge epiphany that you're going to be goody-two shoes? You promised to help me too!"

"Exactly," Hina said. "Let's finish what we started."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Game, Seigaku. 3 games to 2!"

Izumi let out a breath after the referee announced the score, loosening her grip on her racket. The last game had been tense, but she'd managed to pull ahead once more. So far, they'd each kept their serve. As long as she kept her lead, she was going to be fine.

"That was a long game, wasn't it…" Kikumaru complained, stifling a yawn. "It took almost twenty minutes…"

"Nineteen and half, actually," Inui corrected. He turned his attention back to the long haired girl on court. "But you're right. It seems like she's playing it safe."

"She's waiting out her opponent," Kawamura noted. "She's not really trying to score points. She hasn't even gone for a smash yet."

"It's full-on defense…" Momoshiro agreed.

"It's boring!" Horio said. "When is she going to start dancing?"

"Quiet, you," Suzume muttered, a needle between her teeth. "Tennis isn't a show." She was sitting on the ground, the tennis t-shirt in her lap. Apparently, she was not at all shy about being in just her sports bra and skirt. Her scissors worked deftly through the cloth and the needle swerved in and out. Her gaze went back and forth between the match and the cloth.

"Kimura-senpai, what are you doing?" Katsuo asked curiously.

"Improving it."

"You're lucky Akane-buchou isn't here right now!" Kimiko said, glancing her way.

Suzume made a "che" noise before snipping down the seam of the sleeve. "She already said I could alter it. Besides, I'm bored." Snip, snip, snip, went the scissors. Her fingers laced up the sides expertly with a bit of ribbon. She finished hemming the edges, bit the thread off, and donned her improved uniform in a smooth motion.

"Hey, you know… that's kind of cool." Kimiko admitted as she stared at Suzume. From a quick glance, the t-shirt looked the same as all the ones they were wearing, but if one really paid attention they would notice the little details—the sides that resembled corsets, the slashed shoulders—that made it punkish and therefore, Suzume's style. The wind blew through the slashed sleeves, revealing the tattooed butterfly wings on her shoulder that had been hidden.

Suzume tugged at the t-shirt in a slightly dissatisfied manner. "Oi, Kimiko," she said without even looking at her. "Keep your eye on the game. If you don't watch, you're never going to beat Morioka-senpai."

Kimiko grumbled something under her breath, but nonetheless turned her attention back to the game.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I'd never thought I'd say this…" Akane murmured, her voice scratchy like an old record. "But thank god for Suzume and her recklessness." If it hadn't been for the second year's quick action in shoving fingers down Akane's throat, the former captain would've been in a lot more trouble. While her throat had closed up and her head felt like a furnace, there was little visible swelling in her face. It was a lot better than the last time her allergies had acted up. Turquoise eyes shifted to her companion, who was sitting by the hospital bed. "You're not still crying, are you, Chiharu?"

"I'm not!" the third year replied, sniffling.

Akane laughed, and then winced. Her throat was still swollen.

"You shouldn't talk, Akane-san…" Oishi said anxiously.

"And you guys should go back to the game."

Chiharu shook her head, pale fingers closing around her friend's hand. "I'm staying with you."

Akane coughed a couple times. "I don't need you guys to baby me. I'll be out and about by tonight. Izumi's the one that needs you."

"Izumi-chan will be fine."

"You don't understand," Akane coughed a few more times, even more harshly than before. Chiharu's worried grip on Akane's hand tightened softly as a soothing '_shhh_' escaped her lips. "Izumi doesn't play well under pressure. And there's huge pressure on her right now. She needs all the support she can get."

'_Because if she decides to quit, even I can't persuade her to stay. And there's no one out there more persuasive than me._'

Chiharu and Oishi exchanged a glance, both hearing the unspoken words echo in their minds. "If you're sure…" Oishi said hesitantly.

"I'm sure."

Oishi let out an exasperated sigh, a smile appearing on his face. "Akane-san, one day you're going to have to stop looking after other people and worry about yourself."

"Same goes to you." she replied promptly, and he smiled.

'_So long as I have you to look after me…_'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Her hair was sticking to the back of her neck. She ran her hand over the nape of her neck, grimacing at the dampness. One of the many setbacks of cultivating such long hair, she thought. Sometimes she just had the urge to chop it all off.

She fixed her gaze back on her opponent. The girl wasn't bad, but she wasn't good either. Half of the girls on the Seigaku team were stronger. That girl was nothing on Chiharu. Nothing on Akane. Perhaps she was _somewhere_ around Kimiko's level, but the pressure that Izumi felt right now was no where near as heavy as the one Kimiko put on her.

It might be that Kimiko was aggressive, whereas her opponent played a counter puncher style not unlike her own. She let out a rueful smile. No wonder the game was boring. Neither of them were trying to score points. They were each waiting for the other to make errors. At least Kimiko made the game exciting.

Steady stroke here, slow rally there… '_Play it safe. You can't lose here._' She could sense the boredom of the crowd. They wanted points. They screamed for blood.

"Counter puncher style?" Momoshiro repeated.

"That's her opponent's style." Inui confirmed. "It's a battle of the counter punchers."

"She won't lose if that's the case…" Suzume muttered.

The male regulars all turned towards her, looking for clarification. "Why do you say that?" Fuji asked curiously. They knew Izumi was skilled, but to be able to beat everyone else at "counter-punching" was quite an achievement.

"Because Izumi-chan used to practice drills with Reina-chan." A soft voice said from behind them. Chiharu rejoined the group, amber eyes staying on the agonizing battle on court. "Every day…"

Reina closed her eyes, remembering.

-_pok-_

_A younger, shorter girl. Large eyes. Long, black hair._

_-pok-_

_The ball flew towards the wall and hit the circle that was drawn on it with chalk. It bounced back. She ran forward, hitting it into the next circle, which was drawn around 20 centimeters away. There were five total. She ran forward. Next circle. Forward. Next circle. Final smash._

_The ball bounced past her head, and she heard someone clasp it within their fingers. She turned._

"_Not bad, Morioka-san."_

_Another girl. Young. Dark hair tied in a ponytail. A big smile, showing pearly white teeth._

_The first girl nodded. "Thank you, Watanabe-san."_

"_But you need to step it up a bit, make it rapacious." She laughed at Izumi's puzzled expression. "That means make it even more kick-ass!" Reina pulled out her racket._

_She tossed the ball up hit it to the first circle. Dead center, without smearing the chalk. Then, without even stepping forward, she hit the next one. Then the next one. And the next. Dead center every time, without needing to move. She could calculate the exact angle and force of the ball so that it came right back to her. The chalk lines weren't even blurred the slightest._

_This wasn't Tezuka's zone. The path of the ball was straight, the angles well defined, like a billiards game._

_It was math._

'_Amazing ball control…' Izumi thought._

_Reina handed her the ball. "Here. I'll teach you how to use your wrist to get it in the center."_

"_I'm depending on you."_

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Every day…" Chiharu repeated. "From when they were first years, up until she quit in her second year. Some days she practiced for five minutes, others for hours. At least she practiced, and it has done wonders for her ball control."

"So if it's a battle of control, she won't lose." Oishi clarified.

"Hmm," Inui raised an eyebrow as Izumi suddenly put both her hands out in a graceful manner. "Maybe it isn't a battle of control anymore. Looks like she's turning it up a notch…"

"There it is!" Kimiko said excitedly, as the ball's bounces began following a rhythm. "Her zone!"

Fuji's eyes widened. "It's faster than before…"

The tempo of the song was reassuring, Izumi thought as she stepped and hit the ball on beat, making sure to control the spin. Her feet moved in a graceful manner, gliding across the court. She arched her arm back in an elaborate loop, transforming the spin shot into a flat one. '_Control it…_' That's what her dance teacher used to say. '_It's passion, with control…_' You couldn't just let loose. It was freedom with restraint.

Her opponent tried a slice shot. Again, Izumi neutralized it gracefully, absorbing the spin into her exquisite movements. The flat shot landed just beyond the net, scoring her another point.

The crowd watching could almost hear the music in their ears.

Her opponent swore, twisting the racket around in her hand. "There's got to be a way to break it."

"Use a twist spin!" Mizuki called from the bench. All of Seigaku turned to look at him. Suzume gave him an especially scathing look. He returned their stares with a smirk. "Right, Inui?"

The notebook in Inui's hands shook slightly as he clenched it. This was the only emotion that betrayed his calm exterior. "Losing my data to them is hurting us. They know all our weaknesses."

"That's probably how they knew about Akane's shellfish allergies," Kawamura added. "You do write a lot in those books…"

Ryoma let his fingers rest on the rim of his cap. "Inui-senpai is frightening."

Inui touched his glasses secretively.

"Look! There's a twist kite!" Kimiko pointed, directing their attention back to the game. Sure enough, the St. Rudolph player had just hit a twist serve. "Izumi-senpai might be in trouble!"

"It's how you beat her rhythm, right?" Momoshiro asked.

"Yeah! Because twist spins cause you to duck away, so was she missing the beat and trapped in her own rhythm!"

The ball flew towards her, carrying a twist spin. A twist. The one fool-proof way to disrupt her style, to trap _her_ in her own trap. If it was hit deeper into the court, she could counter it with her 'Whirlpool'. But it was a serve—it was shallow, and it was coming fast. Time seemed to freeze as old memories echoed in her mind.

"_You can't keep winning at your current level…_" Tezuka.

"…_you need to step it up a bit!"_ 1st year Reina.

"_Don't let yourself lose!" _Akane.

"_Sometimes you can't just give up!"_ Her own voice.

Struggle. Fight. Win.

She tightened her grasp around the handle of her racket.

Several of them narrowed their eyes at the same time. Her posture suddenly looked a lot more certain, and her expression more determined.

"That…" Izumi said as she caught up in a series of elegant sidesteps, "won't work on me anymore!"

Jaws dropped as she lowered her racket into the position for a drop shot.

"No way! A drop shot to return a serve?"

"It's not even a volley! It's going to be a weak return!"

She turned the racket face up a little to catch it, and felt the impact of the ball on her racket. The spin was stretching the gut, brushing against it roughly. Her arm quivered under the pressure. Sharpening her gaze, she _scooped _downwards, drawing a "U" shape with her racket.

"What is she doing?"

"That's the weirdest return I've ever seen."

"The ball hasn't left the racket yet!" Kikumaru exclaimed, astonished.

Izumi held it there for a moment longer. And then she released the shot,

'_It's so low!_' Her opponent gasped as she ran forward. The ball was falling straight for the ground. '_But it's slow too!_' The ball was not dropping normally, but rather seemed to be floating. Something about it was unnatural. Whatever, at least it gave her time to catch up to it.

"Three and-four…" Ryoma murmured as it landed on the ground. '_Perfectly on beat…_'

"Too slow!" Her opponent lifted her arm to hit a topspin return…

…straight into the net.

"40-love!"

Tezuka nodded approvingly.

"Wait, what happened?" Momoshiro asked, incredulous. His eyes were wide with surprise. "I don't get it."

Inui chuckled. "Morioka just found a counter to one of her weaknesses." A pencil suddenly materialized in his hand and he began scribbling furiously in his trusty notebook.

"She learned how to neutralize a twist, didn't she?" Fuji said with a smile. "Without breaking from her rhythm."

"Oh, darn it. Now I need a new way to beat her." Kimiko said begrudgingly. But she was smiling.

Inui shut his notebook and glanced at Mizuki. The latter did not look happy, much to his delight. "You think you can rely on old data to beat us? That's not going to happen here."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"That was a fluke…" Her opponent muttered to herself. "A fluke. Mizuki's data shouldn't have any flaws."

The next few games proved her wrong. A twist spin no longer had any effect on ruining Izumi's rhythm, despite what Mizuki's data said. The black-haired girl took the next game easily, bringing the score to 5 games to 2.

Something caught Reina's eye. She blinked a few times, clearing her vision. There was something strangely familiar about Izumi's steps. As if she had seen them somewhere before. '_No_,' she told herself. '_Izumi relies a lot on impulse and emotion. Her steps aren't choreographed._' Maybe it was the rhythm itself. It was so precise, it could've been the bass of any 4/4 beat song.

…wait.

Reina suddenly realized why, and her eyes turned away from the game to a certain smiling tensai. '_Did he notice…?_'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A second later, Fuji's face snaps in shock.

_Albinoni's Sonata in A minor._

It was the song he played on the flute for her. It was the song he played whenever she danced for him.

'_No, it could be anything with that rhythm…_' he reminded himself. '_Anything…_'

And yet he knew. He could hear the melody so clearly in his ears. Every step she took, every flick of her wrist matched the melody he was humming softly in his mind. As her steps quickened and became more elaborate, the music in his heart rose into a crescendo, until the final notes—_fortissimo_—sharp, thrilling, passionate, stealing the breath from his chest. She smashed the ball on the final chord.

He wasn't aware that he'd stopped breathing until he was forced to take a breath.

'_She…_ _she used that song..._'

'_The song I played for her…_'

Fuji smiled to himself. It was a small indication that he was on her mind, and he liked it.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Keep up this pace, Izumi. You're doing great." Coach Ryuzaki's face crinkled into a smile.

"Hai!"

"Senpai," Suzume handed her a bottle of water through the green wire fence. "Here. We can't take any chances."

"Thank you," Izumi said gratefully as she twisted open the seal and drank. The refreshing liquid poured down her parched throat, and she almost choked. She swiped her hand across her mouth. Noticing the blue-haired girl, she said, "Chiharu-san, how is Akane's condition?"

"She'll be fine. She's already well on her way to recovering," Chiharu said. She turned towards the red-headed second year. "Thank god you acted fast."

Suzume shrugged carelessly. "I did what had to be done, that's all."

Izumi put the bottled water on the bench and walked over to the other court. As she walked by her opponent, the girl gave her a glare. She shivered slightly inwardly but ignored her and walked on. Just as she was passing the other bench, where Mizuki was sitting smugly, he suddenly spoke:

"You shouldn't keep playing with your condition."

She froze, dread creeping into her skin. She forced herself to count to three, before slowly turning around. Her heart set off in a rapid beat, pumping in her ears. "What?"

He stood up, arms crossed, a satisfied smile on his face. "I came across your file at the hospital."

Her eyes widened. '_No…_' She was clenching her racket so hard that it startled trembling. '_He didn't…_ _He couldn't have…_' How could he have? There was doctor-patient confidentiality, unless he snuck by or bribed someone.. She'd tried so hard to keep it a secret. Even Fuji hadn't managed to find out more than she let him know. The air around her suddenly seemed to be sub-zero

He wouldn't be so cruel to announce her secret to the entire world, would he?

He spread his arms out, as if inviting others to argue with him. "Did Seigaku really think they could win with an invalid on their team? Moreover, what kind of _captain_ would let—"

She struck him across the face.

"Izumi!" Coach Ryuzaki got up.

The crowd dissolved into murmurs.

"Whoa..."

"What's going on?"

The black haired girl was shaking with anger. She would not let Tezuka, _Tezuka_ who was kind enough to let her remain on the team, be insulted for her decisions. She suddenly cringed. Coach Ryuzaki probably didn't even know. Would she blame Tezuka? Would she remove her from the team herself?

Everyone else was in shock. Akane, while kind and caring, was extremely strict. It was no big surprise when she lifted a hand against Suzume. Izumi, on the other hand, had always seemed quiet and rather… docile. They'd never expected her to physically harm anyone, let alone a stranger.

Their captain, Akazawa, sauntered over haughtily. "Well, Tezuka. I didn't think this kind of event would occur under _your_ leadership."

Izumi felt herself wince. '_Now I've disgraced my team…_'

"As you see here, your teammate has assaulted my manager," He shrugged arrogantly. "Obviously, I expect an apology for—"

"You will expect no such thing!"

Her head shot up at his voice; firm and clear like a command. Tezuka had his arms crossed, the look in his eyes fiercer than normal. She thought she heard Suzume mutter, "Damn straight," but she couldn't be sure.

Akazawa looked taken aback. "Well—"

"In fact," Tezuka continued, "You will have _your_ manager apologize to my teammate for provoking her."

Akazawa's mouth opened and closed, making him look very much like a fish. "You—you can't be serious." he finally sputtered.

"It's buchou we're talking about," Ryoma said with a cheeky smirk. "He's _always_ serious."

The referee stepped down from his elevated seating, walking towards them with a puzzled expression. "Is something wrong?" He seemed to have missed the commotion.

"No," Mizuki said silkily, regaining his smooth composure. "Please continue the match." He patted Akazawa on the back, murmuring something in his ear. The dark-skinned captain grudgingly nodded, and motioned for his teammate to return to the court.

"Hey!" Kikumaru said angrily. "That wasn't an apology!"

"Its fine, Eiji." Izumi said quietly with a shake of her head.

"But—"

She cut him off. "It doesn't matter." she said.

Even though she knew it did.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Back at the hospital, Akane reached her cell phone on the bedside table. She was still hooked up to an IV and was having trouble grasping for it. Her arm suddenly knocked against the lamp, causing it to teeter dangerously, like a ballerina on a crippled leg.

"Oh no…"

The lamp fell to the ground and shattered into a hundred pieces.

Akane was too practical to believe in superstitions. She lectured herself to think nothing of it. However even after a nurse cleared up the mess, the ominous feeling lingered in the room. Like a dark cloud that had snaked its way through the clear skies without anyone noticing until raindrops hit their heads. She turned and lifted her clear teal eyes towards the window.

Akane found that she had to look directly at the sun to remind herself that it was shining.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

'"_You shouldn't keep playing in your current condition."_'

She shook her head, trying desperately to clear it as she dived for the shot. All she could hear were voices echoing. Horrid voices.

'"_Did Seigaku really think they could win with an invalid on their team?"_'

They were warped. They taunted her, laughed at her. The other noises of the court filtered faintly in her ears. She could hardly hear the 'pok' sound of the ball, the cheers of her team, the running footsteps her feet made as she tore across the court. They were all muffled by the voices.

' "_What kind of _captain_…"_ '

'_Stop it,_' she told herself. '_Stop thinking.'_

And memories of other voices started surfacing. Sentences that were spoken to her, that had nothing to do with what she was thinking, were suddenly repeated in her head. Words she tried to bury were being unearthed. She no longer felt herself on the court. Her mind wasn't registering what was happening to the game right now.

' "_I know you better than anyone, and I know that you quit everything you start! The school council, tennis, the dance team…" _'

' "_I objected to accepting you onto the team…" _'

' "_Izumi-senpai… I'm sorry… but could you leave me alone?"_ '

' "_You're making excuses…"_ '

' "_Morioka, you don't know the trouble you've caused_…_"_ '

'_Stop…'_ she cried inwardly. '_Enough already._'

' "_You let them become closer to you. But whenever I try, you push me away." _'

The soft voice began to echo in her mind. She felt a new spike of dread. '_Stop… not this, not you. I can't take this right now._'

' _"I just want to get to know you better… But you won't let me." _'

She could see those beautiful blue eyes burning into hers. A wave of anguish engulfed her. It felt like someone had reached into her heart cavity and physically tugged on her heartstrings.

' "_Izumi-san, I don't know what you expect me to do." _'

Soon afterwards, the referee announced the game and match to St. Rudolph, but she barely heard him. Numbly, she picked up her racket and walked out of the court.

"Izumi-san…" Chiharu started towards her. Fuji laid a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged them all away, eyes fixed to the ground.

"I'm sorry," she said to Tezuka. "I…"

Tezuka nodded.

"Can I leave?"

Normally he would've said no. All the team members were supposed to stay and finish watching the matches out of respect. But she looked so forlorn, so positively heartbroken that he just nodded once again. And with that, she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked off without another word.

Fuji made a move to follow, when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Let her be." Chiharu said gently.

"What if…"

"Akane told me that if she leaves, she needs to come back of her own accord. She needs to _want_ it." She bit her lip. "It hurts me to just let her go like this, but I think Akane's right."

"What happened?" Horio asked. "She was playing so well… and then suddenly…"

"She lost her concentration," Inui finished with a nod. "Something was troubling her. Her eyes were all out of focus and her movements were sloppy. "

The freshmen trio looked downcast. "If we lose here, we won't move onto the next tournament…"

"Wait," a soft voice suddenly came. They all turned to see a strikingly beautiful girl walk onto the court. She whirled to face them, her hair framing her almond shaped face. Her eyes were exotically tilted, framed with dark alluring lashes. She smiled, and suddenly her skin looked like it was bathed in light.

"Who said we were losing?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"R-reina-san?"

Kachiro nudged Horio uncertainly, whispering under his breath. "Did you ever remember Watanabe-senpai being that beautiful?"

Chiharu let out a soft laugh. "Reina's always been beautiful."

"Not like that…" Kachiro breathed. A faint blush adorned his cheeks.

"Ah! Katou! You like older women!" Horio exclaimed accusingly.

"Shut up!" the first year cowered to hide his face.

"You're not the only one," Chiharu informed them with a tender smile. She nodded her head toward the crowd. Apparently a lot of the first and second years had the same blushing face on, including Arai. "Reina has this effect on a lot of people."

"Wh-what? How? I mean, she took her glasses off, but still! She's… _different._"

Fuji chuckled. "She put on makeup, didn't she?"

"Eh?" Oishi turned to him. "Really? You can tell?"

"My sister explained it to me. Makeup, when done properly, enhances the best features in a person's face, and covers the worst. You can easily alter your appearance to its best advantage. And done correctly, it's not even noticeable; all people notice is that you look prettier."

"Reina has always had an astonishingly attractive face." A slightly hoarse voice said from behind them. All of them turned to see Akane, coughing a little but otherwise completely fine. That didn't stop Oishi from fretting immediately, however.

"Akane-san! You need to go back to the hospital!"

She waved it away. "I'm fine, Oishi-kun. They released me themselves."

Suzume snorted slightly, with a roll of her eye. It was obviously a lie. She bet that sooner or later they'd see a crowd of nurses tearing across the court looking for their missing patient. For a moment she wondered what Akane had to do to escape the hospital. She imagined the 3rd year leaping out of the 2nd story window with a makeshift parachute made of bed sheets. It wouldn't be too far from the truth.

Akane nodded at Fuji. "You're right. If she puts some makeup on, and she turns out completely stunning. It's one of the tricks she uses. Intimidation."

"I wouldn't be intimidated by a pretty face." Aiko stated boldly. "It's not like it helps your tennis." Kaidoh grunted in agreement.

"Maybe not, but some people are, and some are distracted by it." Akane winked. "Like half of the people watching."

"I would be scared!" Kikumaru declared openly. "If my opponent looked like that, I wouldn't be able to play!"

Oishi chuckled. "As your partner, I sincerely hope that isn't true…"

"Tennis is tennis," Ryoma muttered. "You don't need all these mind games."

"Tennis," Akane countered, clearing her throat some more, "is ninety percent psychological." '_And you play mind games all the time, Echizen. You just don't realize you're doing it._'

After a moment of silence, she said, "So I take it that since Reina is playing, Izumi lost her game."

"She was fine until that _baka_ said something to her." Aiko said, almost defensively, shooting a glare in Mizuki's direction.

"She's right." Kawamura agreed. "It was all in her favor until then."

Akane gave Mizuki a dismissive glance. "She overreacted." she said cuttingly.

"Akane…" Chiharu began, wincing at the tone in her captain's voice. "It wasn't her fault. Izumi-chan—"

"Needs to sort out her issues, or I'm pulling her from the team."

"Akane's right." Tezuka affirmed. "You can't play well unless you give the game your entire focus."

"Speaking of which, we should focus on the game." Oishi reminded them. "It's starting."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"One set match!"

Hina was her opponent. This was certainly interesting; two data players facing off. Reina took her stance, preparing to serve. Her fingers rubbed along the velvety surface of the ball as she ran a calculating glance across the court. She gathered her focus, threw the ball up high and served.

The serve shot towards the edge of the court. "It's out!" Hina called.

"A little premature to be saying that, don't you think?" Akane said with a smirk.

Reina's serve grazed the edge of the line, narrowly but irrefutably in.

"15-0!"

"So precise…" Oishi murmured in shock.

"If Oishi is saying it, it must mean a lot," Kawamura said, turning to him with a smile. "After all, almost no one can match you in precision."

"In terms of power, Reina is second only to Aiko," Akane said, quelling another cough. "In terms of speed, she is second only to Sayaka. In terms of technique and ball control, however, she is second to no one."

Momoshiro's head whipped around. "What? Sayaka's faster than Komboi-senpai? That's impossible!" He glanced over at his foreign senpai, or, to be more accurate, at her muscled legs. "Just _look_ at her."

Sayaka looked equally surprised.

"Actually," Inui explained. "Sayaka-san is able to produce short bursts of speed that are faster than Komboi's sprints," He compared the two in his mind, racing them mentally. "Sayaka-san needs to gather momentum to enter her jumps and aerials. In that moment before she takes off into the air, she is definitely the faster one."

"Ah…" Ryoma murmured, his face deadpan. "Like an airplane."

"Hey! Who you calling an airplane, you midget!"

Ryoma ignored her, choosing to give his attention to the court instead. Reina had just ended a rally, winning her another point. So far, she hadn't shown any extraordinary skill, other than being fast and hitting heavy shots. Didn't Inui once say something about data players being stronger in the basics, like strength and stamina? He nodded to himself. It made sense. They were probably more aware of their weaknesses.

She hit a sharp slice into the court, causing Hina to stumble in her attempt to catch up. She barely made it. Reina hit a drop shot, but her opponent saw through it and volleyed it back. Suddenly Reina leapt up and smashed it into the rear box.

"Nice." Aiko murmured quietly. The weird pretty girl was gaining some of her respect. That was no ordinary leap. She could probably out-jump the girl by at least six inches, but she doubted her timing would've been half as good.

"Well executed." Tezuka commented. "Sometimes how well you time your jump is more important that the height of it."

"She predicted the volley, didn't she?" Fuji asked. "So she could time her jump perfectly."

"Right," Inui said, with a slight tone of pride in his voice. "Reina's the resident data player on the girl team."

"No." Chiharu said softly, and everyone turned to stare, surprised. After all, to them, Reina did seem to be a lot like a female Inui. Only a lot prettier. Chiharu shook her head. "She's a lot more than that."

Kachiro tilted his head. "Ne, isn't Watanabe-senpai a synesthete, just like Oshiro-senpai?"

"Good memory," Akane all but croaked the compliment. She cleared her throat. "But number form just means she sees numbers in a different way than we do. They _surround_ her in the air. Because of it, she has a faster reaction to which number is higher and lower. It gives her a split second advantage in calculations, and those seconds add up."

"She doesn't use it directly like Oshiro does." Tezuka said.

"Her data tennis isn't what's dangerous," Suzume said with a smirk. "It's something else."

"Something… else?"

"Yeah. Something else."

Momoshiro resisted the urge to smack his forehead. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"Watch," Suzume simply said, a glint in her eye. "And you'll see."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"1 game to love! Change court!"

Reina shook her wavy hair out after winning the first game, and half the crowd caught its breath. It was like watching an angel.

"Hey you," Hina snarled. Reina looked over her shoulder. "Don't look so smug. That's the only game you're going to win today."

Reina calmly walked away and straight up to Mizuki. He tried to look indifferent, but the pink on his cheeks betrayed him. He sat up straight and attempted to sound confident, "Is there something you want?"

"I was going to go easy on your minion here—" Hina sputtered an incoherent curse at the point. "But avenging my teammates suddenly sounds a lot more appealing," Reina finished. "You do not need to endeavor in envisaging the final score any longer. It will end in 6-0."

Normally, Mizuki would scoff off the comment. But his mind was blank, and all he managed to stutter was, "You-re-you're wrong."

Reina let out a musical laugh and walked back onto the court.

Katsuo looked at Horio. "It is just me, or does she seem a little…" He stopped, rethinking his words cautiously.

"Pretentious?" Kimiko finished for him, giggling. "Oh, definitely."

"That's how she is on the courts." Akane said. "I guess it brings out the old her—the old flaws too."

Suzume tossed her head. "Trust me, when you're _that_ good, you're allowed to be a little conceited."

"Do you remember…" Chiharu said, reminiscing fondly. "…when she was a first year? How she was always showing off her new tennis skills and her artwork?"

"Not to mention the new vocabulary she was learning," Akane said with a grimace.

"But she would always try to teach us," Chiharu reminded her. "She would always work with us with all those tennis moves, until we could do it better than she could."

"Yeah…" Akane rested her gaze on the court once more, watching as a new game began. Reina ran down the edge of the court, and Akane suddenly had a glimpse of the younger, shorter girl with the big smile and large eyes, giggling and yelling at her to hit the ball harder.

"Deep down, I think she's the same girl; passionate and eager to please."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey," Kikumaru frowned as Reina was halfway to winning her second game, with Hina having yet to score a point. "Is it just me, or are the rallies getting shorter and shorter?" The last point she had won in just three short rallies. He was sure that the second one of the match had been well over ten.

"Now that you mention it…" Kawamura said. "I think you're right."

"I see that your vision is unparalleled, Kikumaru." Akane said, causing the redheaded acrobat to grin at her praise. "It means Reina's tactics are working."

"Reina isn't as much of a data player," Chiharu explained. "Yes, she uses data, but she never wastes a few games to gather it. She's a strategist at heart, and she tests her theories through trial and error. Once she finds a few that work, the rallies get shorter."

"So she doesn't play the _exact _same way Inui-senpai does…" Kaidoh said.

"No," Akane said to herself, thinking that they hadn't seen anything yet. "No, she doesn't at all."

Suddenly, Hina anticipated a drop shot and smashed it out of Reina's reach, grabbing their attention.

Reina looked at the spot the ball had landed. She couldn't help but smile a little. Finally, _finally_ her opponent was trying to predict _her_ moves.

"I'm going to keep winning from here!" Hina announced. "You won't get another game."

Reina smiled. "I'm sorry, but given past examples, that statement seems to be disproven already." She turned away. "I do pride myself in being logical."

Hina could only scowl.

But as the next rally dragged on, it became clear that Hina was putting up a fight. She managed to counter Reina's sharp attacks. She also knew not to doubt Reina's precision anymore, so she ran after every ball, even when it looked like it was going to be out. She caught up to a ball and rallied it back for the third time. '_This isn't that hard…_' she thought to herself. She anticipated another shot; this one was hit straight down the middle. She ran towards it, pulling her racket back for a swing. "Is that really all you've got?"

The straight shot suddenly bounced to the side, and she missed. '_What!_'

The crowd drew in an astonished breath.

Suzume nodded once, almost in respect.

"What _was _that?" Kaidoh asked. The ball had bounced in a right angle, making an "L" shape on the court.

"Probably a forehand slice with an enormous amount of sidespin," Inui concluded, even though he knew Kaidoh wasn't being literal. "Which caused the ball to take a path perpendicular to its original route after the bounce."

"That's so cool!" Kachiro said.

Fuji nodded. "That's quite an ace she has up her sleeve." He turned to see Kikumaru looking at her in a puzzled matter. "Is something wrong, Eiji?"

"No… but I feel like I've seen it somewhere."

Fuji opened his eyes, immediately interested. "Really. Where?"

Kikumaru let out a frustrated sigh. "It's not just that. Her play style. The game. It _looks_ familiar. It's too… patterned. Ordered."

"Really? I can't tell…" Sayaka said doubtfully. She rubbed her eyes. "I wish my vision was that good."

Akane smiled a secret smile.

"Hmm…" The tensai returned to observing the game, trying to see if he could detect anything familiar.

Reina hit another diagonal shot, making Hina run halfway down the court in order to catch up. The latter was already tired, and the return shot had little power. She hit it down the middle again, forcing her opponent to back up. And then she hit to the left, in another cross shot.

Eiji was right, Fuji decided. There was something 'orderly' about Reina's shots. Her cross shots were well defined in all their angles. She controlled everything so there was no extra spin that threw the ball off track. Even though Hina was hitting shots with heavy spin, Reina calmly made sure their path stayed straight and true when they left her racket. Clearly, Reina did not like curved shots. He watched as she hit the "L" shot again, noting how it bounced sharply to the side in a right angle. No curve. He briefly wondered how she would fare against Kaidoh.

Everything was so precise. He could practically see a grid drawn out on the courts, with the ball landing on specific intersections. It reminded him of when he had to draw triangles on graph paper in elementary school. Or when he had to write the coordinates of a point on an x-axis and a y-axis. The tensai let out a chuckle. That might actually be the truth. Reina seemed like the type of person to plot her shots on a mathematical plane. Maybe that's what made it look familiar. It was too… perfect.

Hina looked prepared to hit a backhand when the "L" shot came again, evading her. She dived for it and missed.

Out of nowhere, realization struck the tensai, and his blue eyes widened. At the same time, Ryoma got it. One word left the first year rookie's lips.

"Chess."

Akane grinned. "Yes."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"She's playing _chess_?"

Kikumaru jumped upwards in pure relief. "I knew it! I knew I saw it somewhere!"

Chiharu nodded. "Reina's a Candidate Master in chess. One of the youngest in the world. It's only three ranks below International Master."

Some of the people still looked doubtful. Arai tossed back his brown hair. "This is impossible. You can't just play chess on the courts."

"Reina can." Akane replied coolly, not wasting words.

"How?" Horio asked.

"She thinks logically, and she thinks fast."

Katsuo leaned over to whisper in Horio's ear. "Ito-senpai is really the opposite of Watanabe-senpai. She doesn't elaborate enough most of the time."

Sayaka voiced her opinion out loud. "Really, Akane-buchou, you're just as bad as Reina-senpai."

"Reina has a heightened form of spatial reasoning," Chiharu explained. "Since that's what number form gives her. She sees numbers in a spatial sense."

"And…" Akane continued, pointing to the court. Reina swung her racket to hit a low shot, right to the baseline. "She applies it to the court."

Like a Magic Eye, lines started to appear on the court. The regulars suddenly saw an invisible grid, marking out squares where Reina's shots landed. They could practically see coordinates and numbers next to each intersection. It really was a mathematical plane on the court.

And suddenly, certain squares were filled in. It was a mathematical plane no longer. It was a chessboard.

Tezuka blinked; the most surprise he's shown since the beginning of the game. When he thought that the chessboard and the courts were "Reina's territory" back at Suzume's mansion, he didn't mean it _literally_. As it turned out, Reina had merged the two into one.

Reina hit a drop shot forward.

A pawn.

She countered Hina's straight shot with a diagonal one, to the corner.

A bishop.

She swung her arm to hit a powerful forehand, the ball bouncing before shooting off to the side. Her famous L-shaped shot.

"A…knight." Momoshiro whispered, stunned with his realization.

Reina's eyes were cold and calculating. Every stroke was meticulously planned, but at the same time, it was experimental. She seamlessly adjusted her strategy to her opponent's attacks. And once the regulars understood how she was playing, they too saw the game in her way. Her knight took Hina's rook. Her queen took the other bishop. It was amazing how she could think of so many different tactics and carry them out, one by one.

Because, they realized, tennis was chess. It depended on which player could outmaneuver the other.

"Did you know," Kimiko asked. "that Reina-senpai has the all time high score in Tetris?"

Most of them didn't know what to make of this knowledge.

"Eh?" Kikumaru looked over his shoulder. "I love Tetris! But it gets pretty hard when the blocks start falling fast."

Oishi looked at his partner. "Can't you still see the blocks, Eiji?" With Kikumaru's visual abilities, he was surely capable of achieving a high score.

"Yeah, I can see them," He pouted. "But I can't figure out where to put them in time and then they get stuck in the worst positions…"

"Like Akane-buchou said, Reina-senpai thinks fast." Kimiko remembered a time when she watched her senpai play Tetris on her laptop. She remembered how focused Reina's eyes were as they flitted back and forth from the blocks to the puzzle underneath. She remembered how sure her fingers were as they darted around the arrow keys. And she only saw her senpai make one mistake, and even then, it was rectified immediately.

"That's her most dangerous trait." Suzume concluded.

Momoshiro raised his eyebrows. "That she's…good at Tetris?"

She gave him a filthy look. "No, idiot. Her spatial reasoning."

"Being an artist must've also helped her visual-spatial reasoning, since artists have to deal with perception."

"But how can it be a chessboard?" Horio asked loudly. "First of all, a tennis court can't divide evenly into 64 squares."

Inui guessed that Reina saw more of the _concept _of the chessboard. She drew out boundaries in her mind, but the squares were fluid. She probably shifted the squares around her opponent as she saw fit. The opponents' weak points became the weak squares on a chessboard; squares where the valuable pieces were more vulnerable due to their position. Inui tried to explain this to the freshmen trio, but they just looked at him with dazed expressions. Maybe he was wrong, anyway. What was he trying to do, he asked himself. Who knew what went on in Reina's head?

"Hey."

Ryoma wasn't looking at her when he said it. But Sakuno knew that he was referring to her. Something about his tone, or the way he said it… "Is something wrong?" she asked him.

"What animal do you think she is?" he said, without taking his eyes off from the court.

"Hmm…" Sakuno stared back at her senpai, watching her end another successful rally. She had been on the defensive for that rally, only to score a point in the open court as soon as Hina had let her guard down. She probably planned the whole thing. Was there ever an animal so… analytical? "Maybe a bird of prey, like buchou…"

"Or a shark," Ryoma countered. "Since they always go for the injured animals and attack their weak points."

"No, I think Kawamura-senpai is a shark. Since he has the whole "burning" mode when he touching a racket, and sharks go into a frenzy when they smell blood."

Kawamura looked up when his name was mentioned. "What is it?"

"Nothing." the two freshmen said simultaneously. Half of the team couldn't help but smile at them. The two first years were in on a private joke together. It was endearing. Maybe it showed their matchmaking efforts were working.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Reina gently patted the towel over her face. A small smear of black was left on the towel when she finished. She put it down and pulled out a liquid eyeliner tube, before flawlessly applying it to her eye. She didn't need a mirror. She hadn't needed mirrors since she was a first year. '_I've drawn enough self-portraits to know exactly where my eyes are…_' To be honest, she'd hated mirrors since she was a first year. And she hadn't drawn another self-portrait since then, either. She hated them because they didn't show who she wanted to be.

Which was the worst part, because she didn't know who she wanted to be.

"Are you okay, Reina?"

Coach Ryuzaki's voice jolted her back into the present. Reina nodded. "Yes."

She smiled. "One game left. Don't screw it up like the last two did."

Ignoring Akane's indignant (and raspy) "hey!", Reina nodded again. "Don't worry. She is only capable of predicting seven moves ahead." Then she twirled her racket in her left hand and confidently stepped back into the court.

Kaidoh gave his ginger-haired senpai a confused look. "What does that mean, 'seven moves ahead'? It sounds like a lot." He never planned ahead. He just crushed them as they came.

"It means she's average," Akane said. "Seven is the point where most people lose count. You could probably remember seven steps, or list seven things, without any trouble."

Inui held out a piece of paper. On it were some black circle marks. Sakuno looked at it and said curiously, "Seven dots."

"Right," Inui said. "But bring that number to eight, and almost everyone gets mixed up. They can't react to it immediately. Seven is the largest number people can visually comprehend."

"Hmm…" Horio said thoughtfully. "So if Watanabe-senpai has good spatial reasoning, she can do more than seven dots, right?"

Akane fought back the urge to chuckle. "Oh, yes."

"How many can she do?" he asked eagerly.

"Twenty-three."

"W-WHAT?"

"Reina's artistic training, combined with her synesthesia, and her extensive expertise in chess have given her an amazing ability to visualize things spatially."

"The chess training did more than that," Suzume suddenly cut in. "She can see strategies, possibilities, sheer _patterns_ just like that. Like Chiharu said before, her tennis is strategy based."

Sayaka realized how Reina caught all her openings and noticed the repetitiveness so quickly. It was because she could pick out patterns and see where Sayaka was most likely to miss, based on how she returned the ball. She felt like a lab rat, all of a sudden. A lab rat in which a scientist carried out experimental tactics and strategies on.

Suzume continued, "Which is also why I never, ever turn down a chance to play Reina-senpai, even if it means getting my butt kicked every time."

Sakuno looked up. "Why do you say that, senpai?" '_Akane-buchou is right, I need to ways to improve, and play against stronger people…_' But the first year girl had to admit that she hated losing. Does Reina make losing easier to take? Maybe she should ask Reina to play against her.

"Because playing against Reina-senpai is like trying to crack a puzzle. The objective is to figure out what strategy she's using before it starts working." Suzume thought back to their games. She recounted on how she would try to look for clues in Reina's attacks, rather than just hit the ball. She remembered how, occasionally, she would finally get a shot past Reina. It was incredibly rewarding to see that surprise etch itself onto her senpai's features. Rare as they were, Suzume liked the moments where she bested Reina. As she finished telling the first year about it, Suzume said, "Of course, then she'd switch strategies and kick my butt anyways."

"Oh look!" Tomoka exclaimed excitedly. "Match point!"

Hina, sneaky and coldblooded as she was, deserved some sort of credit for not giving up. Even now she was fighting tooth and nail to get a point back. Suddenly, she found an opening and practically shrieked in delight. Reina had left part of the right court empty, the court away from her dominant hand. Hina swung an almighty forehand right to the left corner, making it one of her most powerful shots. The ball exploded toward Reina's court and Hina smiled triumphantly. '_Yes_!'

Out of the blue, a yellow streak shot right under her legs and sizzled onto the baseline. Her mouth formed an _O_ as she heard the ball bouncing behind her. She hadn't even seen Reina move.

The dark haired girl walked slowly to the net. "When an amateur moves in for the kill," Reina began, "he is too eager; he often forgets to protect his own king and leaves his defenses open." She gave Hina a nod, who had dropped to the ground out of shock and exhaustion.

Then she glanced at Mizuki, who was clearly distressed that neither St. Rudolph's team had been able to advance in the tournament. She couldn't resist a smug look, just for payback. It was a bit satisfying to bask in his pain. "I told you I'd win 6-0," Then she mustered up her most radiant smile, noting that half the crowd was already applauding. "Checkmate."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Everyone offered up their congratulations and cheered at the fact that they were advancing to the finals.

"Watanabe-senpai is amazing…" Kachiro said in a mesmerized manner, his cheeks still pink. He looked like he was in a trance.

They laughed.

"Hey, I'm going to go find Izumi-chan, ok?" Chiharu said to Akane as they gathered their things.

"I'll take care of that..." Fuji told her. A second later he was gone. Chiharu and Akane exchanged glances.

"Reina-san, I am officially impressed." Inui said, shutting his notebook decisively. He had filled up over half of it in that one match.

Reina put her glasses back on. "Thank you…" His approval meant so much to her.

"Evidently, there is more to you than what the eye can see."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Izumi-senpai?"

Izumi lifted her head. She'd been sitting at the picnic bench for quite some time. The sunset was already painting the sky a lovely purple-pink, yet she didn't feel like appreciating it. "Yuuta-kun." she acknowledged, without much enthusiasm.

He awkwardly stopped in front of her. "Um… Seigaku won, if you were wondering."

She tried for a smile. "I'm glad." She glanced at his standing form. "You can sit, if you'd like."

He sat.

After a moment, he spoke. "Mizuki-san was rude to you. I'm sorry."

"You really shouldn't be the one apologizing." She still felt hurt, and his words still ghosted her memory. She didn't want anyone else apologizing on his behalf. He wasn't going to be forgiven like that, if at all.

"You're right."

They sat in companionable silence for a little longer. She discovered that his presence made her feel a little less lost, and welcomed the feeling. It was a nice change from the lonely solitude she'd experienced a few moments before. "Yuuta-kun," she suddenly said. "How do you deal with losing?"

"Hmm?" He seemed a little taken aback at her question. He shrugged. "Well, growing up with Aniki, I've had to deal with it a lot."

A bigger smile crossed Izumi's face. "I'm sure you did."

He laughed at her tone. "I guess I've just always wanted to beat him. And every time I lost, I would just work harder hoping that I'd get him next time."

"Doesn't that make you… sad?"

"Sure," He shrugged again. "But I'd just use it as my motivation to train harder and at least bring him a better game the next time we played."

"Motivation…" Izumi repeated to herself, looking at the ground. It was precisely what she lacked.

"Yeah. You can't expect to get better when you don't have a target. Isn't there someone that you want to beat? Someone that you want to be better than?"

She shook her head, her eyes still fixed on the soil. "No, I don't—" Abruptly she stopped. A memory resurfaced in her mind. A flash of ginger hair, a piercing turquoise gaze. "Yes. Actually, there is."

Yuuta smiled. "There's your motivation."

She turned her gaze from the ground to him, to look at him properly. "Thank you," she said quietly, gratefully.

"You're welcome."

Footsteps approaching caused both of them to look up. "Aniki!" Yuuta said.

"Yuuta, sorry that your team couldn't advance." Fuji said.

Somehow, his brother always managed to ruin something. Yuuta looked to the side a bit angrily. "There's still the consolation match." he grumbled.

Fuji turned his attention to the girl next to him. "Izumi-san, are you all right?"

"Yes. Yes, I am." she replied and for once she thought it might be true.

"That's good. Yuuta, you're coming home today, right? Mom's making curry."

"Really?" His bad mood vanished. He was easily seduced by curry.

"Actually," Fuji once again turned to her. "Izumi-san, you're welcome to join. Kaa-san's curry is delicious."

Something _whooshed_ through her when he looked at her. She didn't know if it was good or bad.

"I'm not sure if you should trust someone who thinks Inui juice is good," Yuuta said, "But I can vouch that my mom's curry is edible. More than edible. It's great."

Izumi felt her lips curve up again. She was almost sorry when she said, "I'm expected at home. Thank you for the offer." She picked up her bag and walked away.

When she was out of earshot, Fuji turned to his brother. "What were you talking about?" Whatever he said, it had made Izumi a lot happier than he had last seen her. She had looked utterly despondent back when her matched finished. Here, he saw her looking serene, as if a burden had been lifted. Fuji felt a tug of something very similar to jealousy when he realized that Yuuta was one who cheered her up.

Yuuta gave his brother a suspicious frown. "Nothing… why?"

Fuji smiled. "Just curious. Let's walk home."

As they started off, Yuuta said, "You know, Aniki, I've never known you to invite a girl over for dinner before."

Fuji chuckled. "There's a lot you have to learn, Yuuta."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I'll walk you home, Ryuzaki."

"Eh… EH?" Sakuno instantly flushed rosy pink. Ryoma had never offered to walk her home before, at least not after a game. '_This was… this was…_' Even her thoughts were stuttering. '_Wait, I can't think like that… he's probably just…_' "U-um… sure. Thanks. Let me just tell Obaa-chan."

Her grandmother didn't really pay attention when Sakuno told her that she'd be walking home. She was too deeply engrossed in a conversation with Tezuka and waved her off.

"Hey, Echizen, let's get burgers or—" Momoshiro suddenly stopped when he saw the two freshmen heading off on their own. "Oh. _Oh. _Oh, I see." he said in realization. The rowdy second year covered his mouth with his hand to stifle his snickering.

Sakuno felt like diving into a bush. Momoshiro was just so _obvious._ At least Sayaka had more tact.

And she had a lot more common sense, as shown in the way she grabbed her brother by the ear and dragged him off. "Cut it out, Take-nii!"

Ryoma and Sakuno walked in silence, side by side. "Hey," he spoke up. "We should finish the animal matching game. Just match the last three senpais on your own. You're better at it anyways."

"Eh?" Her modesty got the better of her. "I'm not! Ryoma-kun is the one who came up with 'eagle' for Tezuka-buchou." she pointed out.

"And Ryuzaki came up with 'chimpanzee', 'dolphin', 'whooping crane', 'lioness', 'fox', 'raccoon', 'shark…" he paused, recounting in his mind.

"Ryoma-kun came up with 'wasp', 'blowfish' and 'beaver' though!" she protested.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Meanwhile in the bushes…_

"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

"Um… animals?"

_CLUNK_. "You're an idiot."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"We'll leave Watanabe-senpai aside for now. What is Chiharu-senpai?"

"A rabbit."

'_Timid, gentle, but overly reliant on instinct. And capable of delivering a powerful kick_. _Perfect_' Ryoma thought. "Hmm… not bad. What's Marui-senpai?"

"A hamster."

He nodded. "Put her on a wheel and she'll go and go."

Sakuno laughed.

He was enjoying this; pitching names at her like some circus performer. "And Oishi-senpai?"

She frowned. "A mother-hen… _you _came up with that! It was one of the first ones we did!"

He smirked. "Heh. Just testing you."

"Mou…" she sighed, exasperated.

He walked in silence for a while before saying, "Seigaku really is a zoo…" making her giggle.

They had reached her doorstep. Ryoma turned around to face her. "You really don't know why you're good at this?" he said, his tone becoming more serious. She _was_ extremely accurate at the animal matching game. Scarily accurate, and she wasn't even aware of it.

"Huh?" she looked at him with bewildered eyes.

"It's because you can read people, Ryuzaki," Ryoma said. "You have good eyes."

It was such a nice compliment. Way better than: "you have beautiful eyes", because it actually _meant_ something. It meant she had a skill. And when he said it, she felt warmth spread from her head to her toes. He made her feel useful. Like she wasn't the anchor of the team, dragging the rest of them down. "Really? You think so?"

"Yeah. I think you can read anyone. So," he changed his tone to an offhand, more casual one. "What do you think I am?"

Sakuno scrutinized him for a brief moment. "I think you're a cat."

He frowned slightly. "I don't want to be the same thing as Kikumaru-senpai…" he muttered, complaining.

His words were lost in his throat when Sakuno put her face extremely close to his to get a better look at him.

The temperature around him rose about fifteen degrees.

His cheeks felt warm. He couldn't be blushing, could he? No. Echizen Ryoma did not blush.

Sakuno's eyes searched his and he just couldn't, _couldn't_ stop looking.

"You," she finally decided, stepping back from those golden orbs. "Are a baby leopard."

Ryoma quickly tugged down his cap in case his cheeks were filling up. Underneath the protective cover of his cap, he smiled. A leopard was good enough for him. They were like cats, only minus the prissy-fussiness and plus the predatory instinct by a thousand fold. He counted his fingers off. "So we're only got Watanabe-senpai left.

Sakuno suddenly clapped her hands together, startling him. "I've got it. She's a lab rat."

Ryoma gave her a puzzled look, tinged with a little skepticism. "What are you saying. I think you're slipping up." Wasn't Sayaka the one who was complaining earlier how Reina used her like a lab rat? "Watanabe-senpai's the mad scientist, not the lab rat. Maybe more of a nightingale…"

"No, no, listen," Sakuno said, her face pink with enthusiasm. It was quite cute, actually. "Rats are some of the smartest animals on earth. They can run mazes and solve puzzles. I remember watching this documentary where this rat found out how to get the peanut off the mousetrap without setting it off."

"Hmm…" It was making sense. After all, rats were often put in situations where they had to strategize.

"And rats are super sneaky. They have infiltrated almost every country on Earth," she continued, almost breathless from her eager explanation. "Didn't Momo-senpai say something about Reina-senpai being really pro at spying?"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_In the bushes…_

"Damn right I am."

"Shhh, Reina-senpai! And since when did you talk like that! Did you take a tennis ball to the head during your match?"

"I apologize. I was merely attempting to personate Suzume's epanaphora in a caricatural habitude.

Pause.

"What does that even mean and why does it have my name in it."

A hastily whispered translation.

Another pause.

"Don't try to imitate me, you lab rat."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sakuno flopped onto her bed. She was absolutely befuddled.

She had spent at least fifteen minutes on her doorstep, just talking. He'd even complimented her form in today's match, and told her areas she'd improved on. She had to admit, it was a little strange that he was complimenting her rather than criticizing. The conversation on her match went on for a while as they recounted the details together. Without him telling her that her hair was too long.

Although he did comment on her knees.

Even if the conversation seemed slightly forced, it made her really happy that he'd noticed where she had improved. So he _was_ watching her. But right after that moment, it was as if someone had shoved him back into his normal mindset. He'd swiftly turned away, said, "Ja. See you tomorrow." He raised a hand in parting without even _looking_ at her, and was out of sight before she could even reply.

It was confusing.

' "_I think you can read anyone…"_' he'd told her.

Well, he was wrong. She hugged a pillow to her chest and sighed a frustrated sigh.

"Not everyone."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ryoma collapsed on his bed. He was tired.

He knew he had to give Ryuzaki a confidence boost today. That St. Rudolph girl had crushed her spirit hard, and he wasn't sure if Akane's words, (inspirational as they were), were enough. So he decided to talk to her and tell her how much better she was now, to make her feel good about herself.

During the talk, it really hard not to mention how her timing was off, or her footwork was poor during volleying, or that she could've used more power in her serve. She needed encouragement, not criticism. So he bit back his true comments and focused more on how much she had improved.

And then he realized that his praise was true, too. He _had_ noticed all her improvements. And the part about her eyes was the truest thing he'd ever said. Ryuzaki had really good eyes. Dare he say it, they were almost as good as his own. He knew how observant she could be on the courts. She could see it in the way she reacted, the way she moved. Her eyes just lacked his training and expertise. But if she realized it, she could hone them into her greatest weapon.

He hoped she didn't think he was being insincere, (or worse, sarcastic); she did look a little wary at some point in the conversation. That would have the opposite effect he wanted. And that would be bad.

He groaned into his pillow. Why did he care so much anyways?

He was thinking too much these days.

He turned off the light switch and tried to sleep.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, Reina," Akane said, as they were reaching the road where they went their separate ways. They could only spy on the freshmen for so long before they had to go home. She stopped and turned to face her friend. They were near the same height, so she could stare directly into her eyes. "Was it fun today? Playing your own style?"

"Akane," Reina replied, adjusting her lenses. The weight of them on the bridge of her nose was oddly comforting. "I was always playing my own style."

"Not to your full potential you weren't. You were playing the analytical part of it. You were calculating percentages, but you weren't coming up with your strategies. You were trying too hard to mold yourself into Inui. Your chess pieces aren't going to move themselves."

She rocked on her heels a little, not wanting to say anything.

"What I think…" Akane continued. "Is that you're more daring yet at the same time more… stingy than Inui. You need to test out your tactics, but you never give up a single point. Inui has to give up two whole _games_ sometimes, just to collect data."

"I don't want to sacrifice a point if it can be avoided. I can be rather punctilious."

"Exactly!" Akane all but exclaimed. "That's what I'm talking about. You _dare_ to run after every ball even though you'll tire out. You _dare_ to hit them to the very edge to test your opponent, even though you could miss. That's how you got your stamina, speed, and precision." How did no one else on the Seigaku team realize this about Reina? Not spatial reasoning, not strategizing... But this, _this _might be her most dangerous trait? But most importantly, how could Reina not realize this herself?

She didn't know what to say. What was Akane trying to tell her?

"You know, I thought I saw rock-solid determination in Aiko, the Momoshiro twins, and Kaidoh. But Reina…" Akane put a hand on her shoulder. "I've realized this. You may be the most determined one of us all…"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

END CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

**A/N: **This was a difficult chapter, I know. Bear with me. It's getting harder and harder to come up with tennis styles, and Reina's was one that was half formed in my mind. I'm definitely going to put more work on her, and I admit I introduced her style in a weird situation. She won 6-0 against someone clearly weaker than her, and yet she played full out.

I was going to call it Chessmaster, but I thought it would be a dead giveaway. I may change it back.

The next chapter will have some mixed doubles, since I've been neglecting this part of the tournament. And of course, since Chiharu and Tezuka will be playing doubles, that will make up for their absence in this chapter. Sorry, but Reina's development came first. I hope you got to know her a little better in this chapter. She's a messy one, and that's partially because she has no idea who she is.

Also, the next chapter will be "PRINCE OF….". It's a secret.

I am going to develop Aiko, don't worry. And Sayaka. They're next on my list.

**So, funny story:** I met this girl a month back and we realized we both loved Prince of Tennis. And then she said, "Oh, have you read "_TO CATCH A FALLING STAR._" It's the best fanfic ever."

Hehe, well.. imagine my embarrassment. (After my ego deflated, that is.)

I'm going on a cruise to Greece, Italy and Turkey soon. I don't expect I'll see any of you there?

Thank you guys again for 1000+ reviews. You don't know how much it means to me. My first chapter on this fic got about 4 reviews. It seemed like such a dream to even hope that this story might one day be popular enough to warrant 1000+. You guys are amazing. You make anything possible and I love you.

(But don't forget to leave another review, to keep me happy and writing. xD)


	23. Prince of Archery

**Disclaimer: Don't own**.

This is a very special update for me! Why? Because **today is my birthday**!

This chapter is dedicated to the following individuals:

To **Vivien **and **thesadisttensaifuji** for discussing my story with me and helping me with plot ideas.

To **Lilyice, Shadowed-Shikyo** and **cityangelz** for their undying loyalty and comprehensive (and very punctual) reviews. I can't say how much I look forward to your feedback.

To **SnowCharms** and **LadyLadington **for sticking by me since the beginning (three years, baby, three YEARS), and faithfully reviewing every chapter. (I'm sure there are more loyal readers. You'll make my hotlist next time.)

To **AznMistress, **who came up with the idea for the sport. You are my muse, dearie.

To **yumcha-girl **and **animelover704**, who always make me laugh with their reviews.

To **ChocyPockyStick**, who really needs to get an account because they have some amazing ideas. Believe it or not, I often use what you write in your reviews as inspiration.

To **Monkeyheart** for always being the awesome, enthusiastic, yet anonymous encouragement I need.

To all those other reviewers that I did not mention. I read and appreciate every single one of your reviews.

**ANYWAYS ON WITH THE CHAPTER.**

Last chapter. Izumi lost her match because of poor concentration (partially caused by Mizuki) but Reina won hers, revealing her "chess" tennis.

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter Twenty Three: Prince of Archery.**

~**X**~

_Yes, Paradise is very nice,__  
__It's here between the row__  
__Of targets and the shooting line__  
__And archers in the bow._

~**X**~

"So, how is the mixed doubles thing working anyways, if there are only two matches per school?" Sayaka asked her brother as they were on their way to morning practice. The weather was in their favor. It was one of those winter days where it was perfectly sunny, and yet the wind bit into their skin with its chill. Perfect for sports; you could work up a sweat but not be unbearably hot and uncomfortable. "I mean," she continued as they passed some classmates from school, "we won both against Mizunohuchi, Koshikawa, and the other schools. But we won one match and lost the other when we played Fudomine."

"We win one point for every match we win. And the school with the most points in the end wins." Momoshiro explained, walking his bike. "Didn't you see the rulebook?"

Sayaka grinned sheepishly. "You know me and reading… I get bored. But hey," she paused thoughtfully. "I haven't thought about that. It means Fudomine might actually beat us if they win all their mixed doubles matches. What happens if we tie in points?"

"Hmm… I think then they add up the game count and see which school took more games from their opponents."

"Damn," Sayaka swore. They didn't do very well against the Fudomine team. The Momoshiro twins had managed to steal a win from Sakiko and Ishida at 7 games to 5, but Tachibana and his sister destroyed the Seigaku Fuji-Watanabe pair at 6-2. If they tied with Fudomine in terms of points, the game count definitely did not work to their advantage.

"Momo!" A voice called from ahead of them.

"Ah, Eiji-senpai! Morning!" Momoshiro called in return.

"Hurry up!" the redhead yelled at both of them, jumping up and down. "Inui just got the results of the tournament. You aren't going to _believe_ who we're playing in the finals…"

**~X~**

"YAMABUKI?"

All of the guys yelled at the same time.

Momoshiro shook his head in disbelief. "What the hell happened to Fudomine?" With all the stronger schools eliminated in the earlier rounds, the public school was a clear favorite for finals.

"With Akutsu gone, they shouldn't have won…" Kawamura said in shock.

"Yamabuki's doubles are as strong as ever," Inui explained, standing next to the tournament chart with a pointer. He looked very much like a professor. "They took Fudomine in the first three matches."

"No way…" the freshmen trio breathed, pausing in the midst of their ball-fetching duties.

"You would've wanted to be there, Tezuka," Inui said, turning to the captain. "Sengoku vs. Tachibana in singles 3…"

"Wait," Oishi interrupted. "You're not telling us that Sengoku _beat_ Tachibana…?"

His long silence confirmed it.

Fuji's eyes opened in alarm. "Tachibana is nationally ranked…"

"And Sengoku will be, if he keeps playing like he did," Inui said.

"Im-impossible…" Kaidoh stammered, incredulous. They all knew how strong Tachibana was. He was a legend in the high school tennis world.

"If you must know," Inui said, deliberately carrying a casual tone. He seemed to enjoy the fact that he had a lot more information on the situation than everyone else. "Tachibana was not playing very well. I suspect he was ill or injured. At the same time, Sengoku played better than he ever has."

"He would," Momoshiro said, almost irritably. "Lucky Sengoku."

"So what's the Yamabuki girl's team like?" Sayaka asked, a little apprehensively.

Akane fixed her eyes on all of the girls, her expression grave. "That's the bad news. We're not playing Yamabuki. Their girl team got eliminated in the second round."

"Oh," Sayaka said, looking a little put out. "Well that's fine. Who are we playing, then?"

Akane's mouth settled into a grim line. "Hyotei."

**~X~**

"Hyotei?"

"Yup."

"The school that Inoue-san said was really strong?" Sakuno asked timidly.

"Does it matter which school we're playing?" Suzume countered indifferently. "I mean, we'll crush them as it is."

"Don't be arrogant, Kimura." Akane bit out.

Suzume's eyes met hers. Akane was obviously not in a good mood if she was using Suzume's last name before practice had even started. "Why the short fuse, buchou?"

"You have no idea what you're up against. Hyotei had to beat Fudomine to get into the finals to play us. And their game count was 6-0," Akane looked at their astonished faces sternly. "For _every _game."

Suzume's eye widened fractionally. "Did Saki-sen—"

"Matsuyama played singles 3. She didn't get a single point."

The girls had lost their urges to speak. Sakiko was someone who could _flatten _Suzume in a match, and the fact that she didn't even get a single point… There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"I don't mean to scare you," Akane continued.

"Really?" Sayaka said weakly. "Because you're certainly succeeding."

"But—" She shot Sayaka a look. "I want you to know that we are completely unprepared. So later today, when Suzume, Chiharu, Tezuka and Taka-san go off for their mixed doubles matches, I want the rest of you to remain here and continue training. We can't afford to lose any more practice time. This weekend, we are going to train our asses off."

"Actually, about the mixed doubles…" Suzume said. "I know I said I wanted to crush those St. Rudolph bitches too. But after what happened yesterday…" She stopped, glancing at the girl beside her. "I think vengeance belongs to Izumi-senpai, don't you?"

Akane hesitated. '_We were lucky she came to practice today,'_ she thought to herself. '_I don't want to put her in another game for a while, much less in another one with St. Rudolph…_' "I don't think Izumi wants to play against Mizu—"

"No," Izumi suddenly spoke up, quietly but firmly. "I-I want to play."

To say Akane was shell-shocked was an understatement. Izumi had all but quit yesterday. She'd let her game fall apart after one single comment. Akane had heard from Reina that in the end she had nearly _stopped trying_. Akane recognized the behavior; it was how Izumi would react in all their practice games when she was being pressured. Her game would crumble. And yet, now she was on her feet, asking for another chance. This wasn't like the Izumi she knew.

"Are you sure? Bec-"

"I want to play," she repeated.

The ginger headed captain met her gaze saw the first hint of determination flash through her eyes. It wasn't a fire, it wasn't a flame, but there was a flicker of _something_ in those dark eyes. Something inside Izumi had started to burn. And Akane smiled, her eyes softening. "You got it. Don't let us down." She glanced towards Kawamura. "Now, you'll need a partner, so if Taka—"

"I'll do it."

All of them whirled around to face the tensai who'd spoken.

Fuji merely smiled enigmatically. "Besides, I have to get my own revenge."

"Fuji-senpai has gotten his revenge a thousand times over…" Ryoma muttered.

Oishi looked back and forth between Izumi and Fuji. Izumi looked less than thrilled that he'd offered. "Umm… well Morioka-san partners well with Taka-san, so…"

"Let them do it," Coach Ryuzaki suddenly ordered. "You've got the whole morning to figure out your partnership." She shook her head, fingers rubbing her temple. They'd spent far too much time on this already, and the other regulars needed to start their training. Besides, did they think she was blind? Even she could tell that there was some sort of tension between Fuji and Izumi. That kind of thing was not good for the team dynamic. She wanted it resolved as quickly as possible, and what better way to do that then have them partner up against a common enemy? It certainly worked for Momoshiro and Kaidoh.

Fuji turned towards her, all smiles. "Shall we?" he asked gallantly, gesturing towards the empty courts that Tezuka and Chiharu had walked to.

Izumi silently followed him, clutching her racket in her hand. '_Perfect,_' she thought to herself wryly. '_Just perfect._'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"That was a pretty dangerous gamble, Akane-san," Oishi called to her as he was hitting a tennis ball towards her. He pinpointed it to the baseline.

Akane sprinted after it and hit it straight into the basket she was supposed to be aiming for. Perfect shot. "Well, hopefully it pays off. At least we gave them the morning to practice."

"I don't think one morning isn't enough to work out a doubles combination..."

"Ryuzaki-sensei used to put you guys in random doubles on court and have you work out your combinations on the spot." she retorted.

That was true. Momoshiro and Kaidoh had been forced into a game as a pair with no prior knowledge that they would be partners. Then again, that was probably because they would've refused to partner up with each other. Oishi smiled.

Akane finished with a smash into the basket, panting lightly. "Great," he called. "Marui-san, you're up next!"

Akane took the towel that Inui offered to her and rubbed it along her neck. She noticed that Inui was going over something in his notebook, looking extremely serious. Serious and worried. "What's up?"

"I'm going over the Hyotei girl regulars," Inui replied without looking up. "There's Gamaro…"

"That's the super tall one, right?" Akane asked, sipping from her water bottle.

Inui nodded grimly. "184 cm. My height.

"She's going to have a heck of a reach, that's for sure," Akane said. "Who else?"

"Fuma..."

"Is she the really smart one?"

"Apparently," He shuddered slightly. "She could compete with Reina-san in terms of analytical skills."

"Speaking of which… where is Reina?" Akane whipped her head around, looking. "Shouldn't she be going over this with you?" Her eyes scanned the area and found the black-haired girl. Reina appeared to be adjusting Sayaka's form. "What is she doing?" Reina jumped slightly and landed on one foot. And then she had Sayaka perform the same move.

"Fixing Sayaka's landing problem." he replied. "Sayaka has a recoil bounce when she lands. It leaves her vulnerable. If the opponents catch onto that, they could volley the ball back during her landing."

Akane watched as Reina moved Sayaka's arm outwards, showing her how to use it for balance. She looked very much like a choreographer. The ginger haired captain turned back to Inui. "So, who's Singles one?"

Inui flipped the page. "Shigohara."

Akane froze. "I've heard that name before."

"She's won many individual tournaments. She used to play in France. I bet she jumped at the chance to lead a team to victory when a girl team tournament was announced." Inui explained. "She's the one that took out Matsuyama from Fudomine."

Akane ran hand through her fluffy hair, taking a moment to think. "Didn't she play singles three in that match? What makes you think she's the strongest?"

"I… did more research," Inui said furtively, in a tone that sent shivers down her spine. And not in a good way.

She decided not to ask. "We're going to have to make Chiharu play all out from the start if we want to win."

Inui nodded, but murmured in an almost eerie manner, "That is, if we even make it to singles one."

Akane shook her head at him warningly, but he had already turned away. He flicked a few pages back, checking something. "By the way, Akane, how would you rank the girl members?"

"Rank?" Akane repeated thoughtfully. She brought a finger to her chin. "Well, Chiharu would be number one. Reina, me and Suzume are locked in some kind of weird rock-paper-scissors triangle."

"But…?" Inui pressed.

"But Reina would rank number two. Followed by Suzume."

"And you?" he guessed.

Akane merely shrugged, looking around the court at everyone practicing. Aiko was swinging her racket nearby. Sayaka was experimentally working on her landing. Izumi was engaged in a practice match. Kimiko and Sakuno were doing drills with Oishi. "Maybe for now. But I think we've got a strong lineup. Any one of them could surpass me."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi chased the ball down the court, taking long, graceful steps. It bounced on the ground, following the correct beat. Bringing her arm forward, she swung it and aimed for the far left of the court.

Tezuka intercepted it easily, pushing it back. It came towards her again.

She caught up and waited for the bounce. It happened a split-second late.

Izumi frowned at the broken rhythm. She swung again, her racket connecting with the ball. She could feel the tremendous spin that Tezuka had put on the ball. It shook her to her very core. '_He's trying to use Tezuka Zone…_' If she wanted to keep using her 'rhythm' tactic, she needed to be able to control the spin. At the same time, Tezuka needed to control it too, in order to keep it curving back towards him. It was a battle over control. She smiled slightly. '_Tug of war._'

Her arm was quivering under the pressure of the spin. She gritted her teeth and tried to twist her arm around, so she could change the spin, or neutralize it, or do _something._ All of a sudden, the strength of the spin broke her grip, and her racket clattered onto the ground.

She looked down at her hands. They were shaking with effort. Tezuka's zone felt like a solid wall. Unbreakable. No wonder he was Seigaku's pillar. When their two zones clashed onto the court, it was clear which one was stronger.

"I... can't do it…" she said quietly. "Tezuka-san's spins are too strong."

Fuji smiled. "As expected of Tezuka."

This time, Fuji went for the return shot. Tezuka and Chiharu both seemed to favor their left side, despite Chiharu being a righty. He aimed to Tezuka's right in a sharp forehand.

Suddenly he stopped.

The ball was curving. '_Tezuka zone again? No…_' No, it was curving towards _Chiharu_. Fuji felt his eyes widen. '_Impossible… There's no way Chiharu could use Tezuka zone…_' However, the scene before him suggested otherwise. Like she was the vortex of a whirlpool, the ball landed perfectly in front of her. If it wasn't for the surprise etched on her features, Fuji might've believed that it was Chiharu using the zone. '_No way…_ _Unless…_' Fuji realized. '_Unless Tezuka can freely move the center of his zone…_'

Chiharu hit the ball back, scoring a point in the empty court. She turned to Tezuka, amber eyes wide. "You… used me as the center of your zone?"

Tezuka seemed to give her the tiniest of nods before looking back at their opposition. "Let's continue."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Chiharu didn't know what to say.

'_He used me as the center of his zone…_'

'_He trusts me…_' she told herself, feeling warmth creeping in her cheeks. '_He's relying on me._' Her grip on the racket tightened. '_I won't let him down._' She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the movements of the ball. He didn't give her any indication about when he was going to center the zone on _her_. It meant he trusted her to figure it out by reading the ball's movements.

'_He expects a lot out of me…_'

And he was one of the few people that Chiharu hated to disappoint.

The thing about Tezuka centering his zone on her was that the minute he did it, the zone was technically broken. The ball landed at her feet, and she hit it back, but the next return would neither curve towards her nor towards Tezuka, because _she_ didn't know how to use the zone. The minute Fuji discovered this, he began volleying Chiharu's shots back. They hit the empty areas on the court like gunfire.

Although they weren't keeping score, Chiharu could feel the momentum shifting back towards the other pair. And she wouldn't let that happen. She hadn't lost a match yet, (official or unofficial, due to the fact that the tournament wasn't established until this year), and she liked how clean her record was. Tezuka, needless to say, was practically invincible, and she would not be the one to bring him down. So, there was only one thing to do.

Chiharu closed her eyes.

She could feel it. The minute she knew where the ball was, she sped off after it like a cat. Her racket slammed against the green ball and it smashed itself into the corner of the court.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. He gave her another tiny nod of approval, as if to say, "_Good one_."

She responded with a smile. '_Thank you._'

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Fuji knew that the pair surpassed them in both skill and technique. Izumi lost the battle of spin control to Tezuka, and he was no match for Chiharu's instincts. There was one place to turn—combination. A thought occurred to him.

"Izumi-san, do you remember Albinoni's Sonata?"

Izumi inclined her head, puzzled. Of course she did. It was the song she'd played in her head during her last match. "Yes…" she replied uncertainly. "Why?"

"Nothing…" Fuji smiled secretively, getting back in position. He began humming the beginning softly, letting the wind carry the melody to her ears.

Izumi soon found the tune catching in her mind. As they began the next rally, her feet began favoring the stronger beat. She could feel Fuji stepping in time with her.

'_Just like a silent waltz.'_

Their footsteps were merging together. When the music reached a crescendo, they both increased their speed. Chiharu went for a lob and Izumi let Fuji take it, smashing it into the left alley.

Chiharu opened her eyes in shock. Since when did they become so… _in sync_? Their footwork was perfectly simultaneous, melting together until she couldn't tell that there were two people opposite her. She couldn't play with her eyes closed anymore, or else she might completely misinterpret their formation. It's like they were one person.

Chiharu and Tezuka lost the next few points based on errors. Fuji and Izumi had suddenly produced a smooth formation, concealing all their weaknesses. Their unity was mystifying. No words, no signals, just pure… _harmony._

Chiharu was always known for being perceptive. She knew that there was some unresolved tension between the two. She could feel it in the air. But now it was rapidly disappearing, fading into nothingness as this overpowering duet took over.

Their mysterious harmony suddenly broke as Fuji sped up while Izumi's speed remained the same. The small lapse in the formation felt like a sour note amidst a symphony. Tezuka saw his chance and put a shot in between the two, far from both of them.

Instead of looking where the ball had landed, Izumi turned to her partner. "Wait, isn't it…" She hesitated. And then she self-consciously tried to hum the melody of the song. Izumi was never known for her singing.

"No, it goes into the bridge before that part."

"Ah, I see…" Her eyes cleared up as she figured out the segment he was talking about. "Sorry…"

"Heh, don't worry about it…"

And the waltz continued as they glided across the court, following a melody only they could hear.

Coach Ryuzaki smiled at the two pairs. Somehow, by assembling these two, they had killed two birds with one stone. Both produced great combinations.

Needless to say, St. Rudolph did not know what hit them that afternoon.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Akane-buchou…"

The turquoise-eyed captain looked up from knotting her shoe. The locker room was empty. "What is it, Aiko?"

She faltered. "I couldn't help overhearing earlier… When you were talking about the rank of the girls…"

"Oh, really?" Akane shrugged it off, but inside she was taken aback that Aiko could understand so much. This girl was secretly overcoming the language barrier. "Well, we're having a ranking tournament soon so if you feel that you need to prove yourself—"

"It's not that," she insisted. "It's just…" She stopped, as if wondering if she should continue.

"Just…" Akane prodded.

"I don't see how Chiharu is ranked number one!" she finally burst out in slightly jumbled Japanese. "Even though I lost to her, I… I don't think she's that strong. _I _even took three games away from her." Once she started speaking, a torrent was unleashed. All that bottled up frustration, of not making it into singles, of not understanding them, of being afraid to speak, of being left out and of feeling like she was progressing so _slowly_...

"Reina does strategy play, you toy with people's emotions, and that Suzume girl is all about destroying them with pure aggression. But _she's_… using some weird _phenomenon_ to climb the ranks?" She broke off. "It—it just doesn't seem right."

Her fists were clenched. It wasn't resentment, it wasn't a grudge, it was just… It wasn't even about Chiharu. It was about her. Aiko didn't realize this until now, but overhearing their conversation had hurt her more deeply than she thought. Because she wasn't even _acknowledged_ as a strong player, but that girl… that girl used some sort of _ability_ without needing to work for it to get to number one. For Aiko, who worked for every last skill she had, it was like a spit in the face.

Akane surveyed her for a moment.

So this is what it takes to get a foreign girl to speak.

"I don't mean to disrespect—"

"No, I understand," Akane said. "Hey," She picked up her bag and headed towards the door. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

Aiko watched dumbly as Akane walked away. The ginger headed captain stopped, looking back at her expectantly, and she followed. She followed her onto the subway and to a district of Tokyo that she hadn't visited before. The sun had already set, and she put her hands in her pockets to protect them from the cold. She hoped it wasn't much farther. Her nose was getting frozen.

They walked to the outside of a local gym. "Do you see that?" Akane asked, pointing.

When Aiko saw where she was pointing, she felt her lips part in shock.

The bright light was against her, but Aiko could see a petite figure relentlessly hitting balls that came out of the two machines. The light highlighted her graceful form and made those unmistakable ash-blue curls shine silvery gray. Aiko held a hand over her eyes, letting them adjust to the sharp light. When she saw what Chiharu was doing, her mouth dropped open again.

Chiharu was blindfolded.

She was battling two machines blindfolded.

Two balls came flying out of the machines simultaneously. In a flash, she swung left, then right, both of them hitting the wife fence with a harsh rattle.

"So fast…" Aiko whispered.

There was a bruise on her arm and scratches on her legs. She might've gotten the scratches today but the bruise was old. '_Does she come here every day?_'

Chiharu was panting hard. Without warning, another two balls were fired out of the machine in different paths, one of them heading straight for her. Aiko almost cried out to her.

Underneath the blindfold, her eyes locked onto the balls. Her arms became a blur. _BAM. BAM._ Two balls hit the fence and came rolling to a stop right in front of them.

"You didn't think that you were the only one to put in extra effort, did you?" Akane asked with a knowing smile.

"No, I never—"

"It's fine," Akane assured. She turned back to Chiharu, pride glowing in her eyes. "Usually, she only practices with one machine. I think today's doubles match threw her off a little. She found out that reading two people is much more difficult than reading one," The former girls' captain then brought her gaze to Aiko's eyes. "It's not just a miracle, Aiko. Chiharu ranks first because she deserves it."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Izumi felt apprehensive when she saw his number flashing on the screen of her cell phone. What on earth could _he_, of all people, want from her?

A new guinea pig, probably.

She answered it. "Good evening, Inui-san."

"Morioka-san. I need a favor."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

They left as quietly and abruptly as they came.

"Don't think I don't notice," Akane suddenly said, staring straight ahead as they kept walking. They had almost reached the subway station. "I know. You probably put in more effort than everyone else. And you're frustrated."

"I… I'm sorry…"

"No, don't apologize!" Akane whirled, eyes creasing into a laugh. "Don't _apologize_ for trying hard. That's ridiculous. Aiko, let me ask you something," She stopped walking and faced her. "Do you want to play singles in our next match?"

"You're… you're asking me?" She was stunned.

"Coach Ryuzaki asked you the same thing, didn't she? Right now, I'm giving you a choice."

_Singles._ Aiko felt a pull of desire from inside. It was what she wanted from the start. A one on one confrontation with the opponent. To win a game with your own skill. The victory would not be split among two. It would be her chance to shine alone, to show them what she was capable of. She wanted it. She wanted it so, so much.

But…

_But…_

"'_Aiko-senpai… will you play doubles with me?_'

'_You can trust me!_'

'_See? I told you we'd win them easily!_'

'_If I force them to lob, then you can get it with your super-jumping skills!_'

'_Aiko-senpai, that was such an amazing shot!'_

'_We're going to kick-ass with this new formation!_'

'_We did it!_'

'_The Kantou tournament won't be ready for us!_'"

'…"_for us…"_'Aiko sighed internally. '_Goddammit, Kims. I wasn't supposed to like having you as my partner. I wasn't supposed to like _doubles_…_' "Not now," she said to Akane. "I can't right now."

And for a moment, all she could hear was that bubbly voice in her ear, and all she could see were those pale lavender eyes winking at her.

'…_Right, Aiko-senpai? Because we're going to win Nationals together!"_

"Together…" she repeated softly.

Akane's brow was crinkled. "What did you say?"

"Nothing…" A smile crept onto her face as she walked onwards.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So, why did Inui have us assemble here so early in the morning?" Momoshiro said, yawning. They were in the older part of the neighborhood, not too far from where Ryoma lived. In the distance, the steady _plonk_ of bamboo hitting a rock echoed.

Kikumaru leaned against the wall, folding his arms behind his head. "Who knows…"

Fuji chuckled. "I bet he has something fun planned, just like the last time."

Oishi and Kikumaru shivered. "Last time" had been the billiards game, and it most _definitely _was not fun.

Suzume gave the tensai a scornful look. "Shouldn't we be training? We're playing Hyotei, and from the looks of it, Yamabuki isn't going to be easy cake either…"

"A break won't kill you," Akane said firmly. "Training resumes in the afternoon. Besides, who said that this activity won't train you?"

Some of them began to feel nervous.

"Yo!" Inui waved while he approached them. "Now that we're all here, let's head off."

"Wait a second!" Kimiko said, looking around. "Izumi-senpai's not here yet!'

"She's meeting us at our destination. Let's go."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

They walked up to an old fashioned family estate. A stone lay near the entrance with the Kanji for "Morioka" carved into it.

"What are we doing at Morioka-senpai's house?" Momoshiro asked curiously.

Inui pulled on the cord attached to the large bronze bell. A resounding _DING_ echoed through the area, startling some of them. Chiharu flinched and covered her ears to muffle the sound.

The bamboo door slid open, revealing Izumi herself. "Good morning."

The regulars stared.

"Whoa…"

Izumi was dressed in a traditional hakama that bore her family crest. Several of them eyed her outfit appraisingly. She shifted under all their eyes, looking a little discomfited. "Is… something wrong?"

"You… you look really nice!" Kimiko finally said eagerly. "Kind of like a warrior princess from ancient times!" In her mind, she thought of those feudal Japan action movies. The women always seemed to be flying around in kimono and hakamas, with the sleeves billowing gracefully. Thinking a little more, she realized how impractical those sleeves were. They must've gotten in the way of everything.

"So…" Sayaka said, gesturing at Izumi's hand. She really did look like a warrior princess, complete with the weapon. "I suppose that's our activity for today."

Izumi lifted the bow in her hand. It was taller than she was.

"That's right," Inui said with a satisfied smile. "Archery."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

It took a few minutes for them to get changed into hakamas of their own. Most dojos had a strict decorum code, including dress. It was very interesting to see what people looked like in traditional Japanese attire.

Kimiko, for example, looked ridiculous in a hakama. It was too long and too baggy, and just… didn't fit, and she knew it. She swung the sleeves around like a seal clapping its flippers.

Tezuka, on the other hand, looked perfectly comfortable. There was no denying that he was very attractive in this sort of attire. Although Momoshiro and Ryoma were snickering behind his back about how he looked like an old man.

"I didn't know your family owned a _kyudo _dojo," Momoshiro said to Izumi. "That's pretty cool."

"Don't most traditional families have dojos attached to the estate?" Kawamura asked. He studied karate with a traditional family when he was in elementary school. The ancient names often had ties to ancient arts.

"Most do," Reina confirmed. "Among the junior tennis circuit, the Tezuka family teaches judo, the Kimura family teaches karate. The Wakashi family teaches kobujutsu, and the Sanada family teaches kendo."

"And Reina-senpai is a stalker." Suzume finished under her breath.

"This house actually belongs to my uncle," Izumi said, a hand clasped around her bow which was called a '_yumi_'. The wood was smooth to her touch. "Father used to teach at our old home in Kanagawa too. Our whole family does _kyudo._"

"Are we training our accuracy or something?" Sayaka asked curiously as she picked up a bow and a glove. The glove was two-fingered and made out of deerskin. As she pulled it over her hand, her fingers suddenly felt restricted. She awkwardly stretched them out.

"No, actually," Inui responded, picking up his own bow. "You're training your _control_."

All of them looked up.

"Most people associate archery with accuracy," Inui explained. "But archery is more than that."

"It's how firmly you can pull the bow back," a man's voice said. A black haired man walked down towards them regally. "It's how steady you can hold it there. It's how calm you can be during the whole procedure. And its how close to the bull's-eye you can get."

"My father," Izumi introduced.

Besides the dark hair and dark eyes, there was little resemblance between the two. Izumi's father was as harsh as his daughter was soft. He seemed to be made of marble and ice, of everything cold and sturdy. As he stood before him, his tall frame demanded their respect.

"He looks like buchou…" Momoshiro whispered to Ryoma in awe. There was a similarity between the two in how dominating their presence was.

"So, is this your tennis team?" Izumi's father asked her. She replied with a nod.

Tezuka stepped forward, dipping his head in respect. "Sorry for imposing this on you. I'm the captain, Tezuka."

Izumi's father returned the bow. "Thank you for taking care of my daughter. And as for the lesson, well, I enjoy a challenge."

**~X~**

The wooden floor creaked beneath their feet as they followed Izumi and her father into the archery alley. Thankfully, the floor was heated. At that moment, Chiharu slipped and fell on her bottom, causing a slight commotion. Many faces swiveled around to face the newcomers.

"Are those new students?"

One girl blushed and whispered excitedly, "Who are they? They are _so_ good looking!"

"Look at the tall one at the front! He's so handsome!"

"Back to practice!" Izumi's father barked at the crowd. They scurried off like mice and left the regulars alone.

He himself took a stance at one of the targets and picked an arrow out. The targets were made of straw and fastened to the wall. "_Kyudo_ is as much about _spirituality _as it is about the shooting." He arched his arm back in a slow, graceful motion, stretching the bowstring back until his fingers reached just below his eye. "You need to find your peace in the movement, until you can compress all your thoughts into the one, final release of the arrow."

He let go.

The arrow shot through the air and _plonked_ into the target. Perfect bull's eye.

The regulars applauded in awe. He made it seem so effortless.

"Now we will begin target practice," Izumi's father ordered as they all assembled in front of respective target boards. There were buckets of arrows beside each target. He paced across the ground as all of them began clumsily trying to stretch the arrows onto their bowstrings. "Do not skip the arch of the arm. Slowly draw your arrow back. Slow the movement down if you need to. Find your peace. Only then can you concentrate enough on the bull's eye."

Sayaka obeyed him and tried to mimic the arm movement he showed them, taking as much time as she needed. '_He's teaching us how to be aware of our bodies!'_ she suddenly noticed. '_To know the extent of where your arm can reach…_' She let go, and her arrow hit her brother's target instead.

"Oi!" Momoshiro glared. "Keep to your own side, will you?"

She grinned. "Sorry bro!"

The area was filled with the sound of arrows flying and piercing the straw targets, the steady _thonk _sounds reminiscent to rainfall. However, on the regulars' side of the alley, most of the arrows were clattering on the ground, sliding across the floor, embedded in the wooden floor boards or even the _ceiling_. Izumi's father's voice boomed over the din. "_Find _your peace!"

Oishi was the first one out of the regulars to hit his target.

"Whoa!" Kikumaru said, blue eyes bulging. "Sugoi, Oishi! That's amazing!"

"You." Izumi's father pointed a finger at the red haired third year.

"Me?" he squeaked with a jolt, looking bewildered. It took every last inch of courage not to back away from this intimidating man.

"You're not _concentrating._ You need to empty your mind."

"Ah… ah," Kikumaru watched him walk away, before turning back to the target. '_All right. Here goes._' His hand arched backwards, slowly tugging the bowstring. He closed his eyes, gathering his focus. '_Concentrate, concentrate._' Suddenly he opened them, sharpened his gaze, and let fly.

His arrow sailed straight and true and hit the target with a thud.

"Yeah! I got it!" he cheered, waving his bow in the air.

"You did it, Eiji!" Oishi enthused.

Izumi's father stopped at Suzume's target. "You have good concentration," he commented. "But your form isn't right. Stand straighter. Don't lower your head." He fixed her posture and proceeded on, smiling when he heard the unmistakable sound of an arrow hitting the target come from behind him.

Kaidoh found that after his 20th arrow, his arm was beginning to ache. '_This isn't just about control… it's about strength too,_' he realized. He clenched his hand into a fist and pulled the bowstring taut. '_I won't lose!_' Out of the blue, a high-string snapping sound burst into his ear. His bowstring had snapped into two.

"Ano…" he said uneasily. How would he explain this? Apparently he was too strong for this sport. "Morioka-senpai…"

Izumi approached and saw his dilemma. From a leather pouch on her hakama she pulled out a coil of string, unwound some, and attached a new bowstring. "It happens a lot…" she reassured him.

Her father joined her. "You're too impatient. Harsh movements will break the string. Relax more. Draw the arrow back slowly," He pushed Kaidoh a little, and the 2nd year wobbled. "_Balance_. Why do you think my daughter can dance?" He winked at Izumi.

"A-ah…" Kaidoh glanced towards Kawamura, wondering if he'd broken any strings yet. But the Seigaku power player was actually quite gentle in his normal state.

"Mou… this is really hard," Sakuno murmured to herself as she rested her arm for a moment. She moved it in a circle. It was hurting a little already.

Her arrows were all shooting upwards instead of forward. She knew that the proper form was to pull the arrow back to the ear. But if she did that, the arrow would be tilting up at a very slight angle, rather than being parallel, due to her shortness. '_Maybe I should ask Ryoma-kun…_'

Although when she glanced over, she noticed that he was having just as much trouble as she was.

**~X~**

"Good job so far!" Izumi's father commented, raising his voice. "You three," he said, pointing at Tezuka, Oishi and Reina. The latter two jumped, startled. "You're the best of the bunch. Come over here and show them how it's done."

Tezuka stood firm like a mountain. Oishi drew the arrow back with the grace of a samurai warrior. And Reina shot the arrow like it was an extension of her own body. Each one of them managed to hit the target.

"Aw, man, we got shown up," Momoshiro muttered as they went back to practice some more.

As her father left to supervise the other pupils, Izumi took over correcting their forms. "Hold your bow higher," she said to Kaidoh, lifting his hand into the right position. His next shot plunged into the straw. He let out a satisfied grunt.

Momoshiro threw him a glare of envy. '_I want to get a shot without help!_' With renewed determination, he took a new arrow, cocked it, and released the taut string.

A searing pain erupted in the side of his cheek and he dropped the bow. "Ouch! Oh, _f*ck…_" His hand felt along the area and felt wetness. He was bleeding. "What _happened_?"

"You idiot," Suzume said, walking over. "You released the arrow too close to your cheek. The bowstring hit you."

He glared. "Did you come here just to say that t— _Ow!_" She pulled out a Band-Aid, removed the backing, and slapped it onto his cheek.

His fingers immediately went to the edge of the adhesive cloth, and he was astonished to find it perfectly positioned over the cut. "Do you always carry first-aid with you?" he asked, mildly surprised at Suzume's deftness at dealing with injuries.

"I got hurt a lot. I used to hang out with people like Akutsu, remember?" She raised and lowered one shoulder indifferently. "Wasn't always a carnival with them."

He stared at her, not sure how to respond. "You…"

"Momo-chan!" Kimiko bounced up and down from where she was standing. "Did you hit yourself with the bowstring too?" She indicated the Band-Aid on her face cheerfully. "Hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, distracted. He grinned. "Gotta be careful, right?"

**~X~**

After checking up on Momoshiro and making sure he was okay, Izumi moved on to adjust Chiharu's form. Chiharu, being highly observant, retained information well. She was adept at mimicking the form. It was her concentration that kept getting broken.

Chiharu was almost too observant. The action around her translated into chaos in her mind. It was hard to filter through the excitement.

"Try to clear your mind…" Izumi told her gently. "Pull everything out of focus…"

She squinted her amber eyes shut, then snapped them open at the last minute and released the arrow. It grazed the edge of the straw. She smiled, curling her hand around the bow. "Almost there."

Fuji was (surprisingly) also struggling. In fact, it was so surprising to her that for a moment, Izumi wondered if he was pretending. She just assumed that he'd excel at this the same way he excelled at everything else he did. Perhaps being a tensai had its limits.

"You're gripping the _yumi_ too high…" she said softly, stepping next to him. "When you ready the bow, lift and bring it down so your hand is aligned with the target…"

He did as she told him, lowering the bow to eye level.

"Then draw the bowstring back."

He obeyed, pulling the arrow back to right underneath his eye. The feathers of the arrow brushed his cheek, and as he glanced at it, he couldn't help but turn his gaze towards her. Her head was tilted towards the side as she mentally measured the height of the target. She gently lifted the bow so it was in the proper position. He never took his eyes off her.

Then she suddenly caught his eye and turned to face him. The minute her eyes met his, she felt herself inhale sharply. Their faces were less than an inch apart. She had never been so close to those blazing blue eyes before. They burned with a cold inferno.

Oh god, those blue, blue eyes.

She couldn't not look at them. Every time she looked into his eyes she got lost within them, and a magnetic feeling arose from within her. And now, she knew she shouldn't, shouldn't, _shouldn't_ be looking at them, because she wasn't sure what her own eyes would reveal, but they were so _blue_…

Izumi liked language and writing. Words were her forte. But in that moment, her usually poetic brain failed her and the only word she could think of using to describe his eyes was "blue."

He went back to the target and released the shot. It penetrated the straw, only an inch or two away from the center. "Ah. Looks like I got it."

Izumi moved on, and for some strange reason, felt herself barely suppressing a smile.

~**X~**

"Morioka-senpai," Ryoma said, looking faintly annoyed. He held out his _yumi_. "This bow is too big for me."

Izumi looked at his target. His arrows were embedded in the wooden ceiling boards, sticking out like a porcupine's quills. None had hit the target.

She took another look at Ryoma, and then at his bow, and said, quite simply, "You're too short."

He made a disgruntled noise while the regulars burst into laughter. Ryoma gave Momoshiro and Kikumaru (who were laughing the loudest) an angry glare. "You're laughing too much!"

"Looks like I need to add more milk to your daily menu, Echizen," Inui mused.

**~X~**

"All right," Inui said, clapping to get their attention. "Here comes the fun part."

"Eh? That wasn't it?" Kikumaru asked.

Inui snapped his fingers and screens dropped before the boards, each one having… a _card deck_ pasted onto the front, face up.

"We're playing…" Inui took a dramatic pause. "Poker."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"_EEEHHH?_"

"Now, let's go through the rules." Inui continued, looking smug and very pleased with himself. "You each shoot five arrows, competing against one other person. Normal poker rules apply. Since each target board has all 54 cards plastered on front, it is possible to get the exact same hand as your opponent. If that's the case, you each shoot one more arrow, and whoever hits a higher card wins. Jokers are wild cards and the highest cards in the game."

Aiko instinctively glanced at the person next to her. It was Kaidoh. She looked back at the target boards (now covered in cards) and frowned. Although a few months ago, she had won all of them at poker, it was different. It wasn't reading faces and guessing probabilities. This was about skill and accuracy.

She peered at the board some more. The lowest cards were positioned in rings around the highest cards, so it was harder and riskier to get a higher hand. For example, she could aim for the ace of spades, but she could miss by a few centimeters and hit the three of hearts instead. And those cards were so _small…_

He was challenging them to _strategize_. '_That Reina chick will be good at this._'

"Can we spy and see what cards our opponent is aiming at?" Kimiko asked.

"Of course," Inui replied. "You wait for your opponent to finish shooting _all_ his arrows before you start, if you'd like."

"Is there a prize?" Kikumaru asked hopefully, his eyes sparkling.

"_Please_ let there be a prize…" Momoshiro pleaded.

"Actually…" Inui pulled out a colorful coupon. "I have a gift card for Mitsumaru Sports. Whoever wins will get this."

"Yahoo!" Kikumaru jumped up excitedly.

"That's awesome! I've wanted to get this new grip tape for _forever_," Sayaka said, clasping a hand.

Aiko smiled. She knew the shop well and had her eye on some new wrist weights.

"And for the people who miss or don't get a single pair…" Inui took another, even more dramatic pause.

The regulars felt a cold sweat break out on their forehead at the sudden sense of déjà vu.

"It's a pity, but I didn't have time to develop a new juice. We will have to settle with the regular Inui Vegetable Juice instead."

"THAT'S BAD ENOUGH!"

**~X~**

The pairs that would face off in the first round were (as determined by lucky draw): Momoshiro and Kaidoh, Chiharu and Fuji, Reina and Tezuka, Kikumaru and Ryoma, Sayaka and Oishi, Suzume and Aiko, Kawamura and Kimiko, Sakuno and Inui, and finally, Akane and Izumi.

"Just my luck. I _had _to get stuck with you. I am so screwed," Akane said good-naturedly as Izumi took her place next to her.

Izumi gave her an apologetic look.

"Really, you shouldn't be allowed to compete." The ginger-headed girl grumbled jokingly, cocking her first arrow. She aimed for the jack of hearts. It ended up going into the 10 of diamonds instead. "Damn."

Izumi shot three arrows, one right after the other. She hit the queen of hearts, the queen of spades, and the queen of diamonds. Her hand slipped a little on the forth one and it almost missed the queen of clubs, but it pierced the corner. She breathed in. '_I need to slow down._' She did not want to make a fool of herself here. Then she hit the three of diamonds. "Four of a kind…" she said, turning to Akane.

Who had fainted on the floor.

"Huh?"

"Her second arrow missed," Inui clarified, his glasses glinting. He held up a glass of green liquid.

"I… I see…"

Momoshiro and Kaidoh were locked in a stalemate. They eyed one another angrily. "Shoot already!" "You shoot first!" "What are you waiting for!"

Finally, Kaidoh decided to go first. He struck the king of diamonds, shocking Momoshiro. (Kaidoh was surprised too, since he was actually aiming for the jack of spades.)

Momoshiro went and hit the four of hearts, prompting the other 2nd year to sneer at him. He dropped the bow and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. "You want to _go_?"

"Bring it on!"

"Oi, you two…" Oishi sighed tiredly as he stepped between them. "Not in someone else's house, okay?"

Both of them huffed in annoyance, but nonetheless returned their respective posts. After all, if they pissed off the Morioka household, they'd probably get an arrow in the butt

They both ended up missing the next shot.

"Damn," they said at the same time. Their arrows sank into the backboard between the cards, piercing none of them.

'_CLUNK'_ was the sound of them falling to the ground simultaneously, after drinking their penalty glasses.

Reina and Tezuka's face-off was interesting. Both were pretty skilled at archery. Reina managed to beat Tezuka with a four-of-a-kind, despite the latter scoring a very high full house. However, since he didn't miss, he was exempt from the penalty drink. It was a pity, Inui thought, slightly dejected. He wanted data on Tezuka's response to Inui Juice.

Aiko and Suzume ended up going into the "tiebreak". They both hit three fives and two sevens of the same suit. For the last card, Suzume hit a three whereas Aiko hit a six. Aiko advanced, and Suzume found that she didn't really mind. As long as she didn't have to drink that horrible thing.

Sakuno grasped her _yumi_ with willpower. '_Yoshi,_' she thought, pulling back with force. '_Even though my opponent is Inui-senpai, I can't lose!_' "Hyaa!" she shouted as she let go of the shaft. Her arrow ricocheted off of the ceiling and plunged into the floorboard, sticking out vertically like a tree, quivering ominously. "Ah… I missed!"

Inui could only sweatdrop. "So I see…"

So she drank the Juice and dropped out.

Sayaka, on the other hand, knew to play it safe. The easiest cards to hit were the low ones nearer to the center. That way, even if you miss you might still hit _something_, rather than missing entirely and being forced to drink Inui Juice. She lucked out by getting a pair of fives and few more low cards. Oishi won easily, hitting three sevens.

"It's quite a hard game…" Kawamura murmured as he took aim.

Kimiko slid up next to him. "Hai, Kawamura-senpai!" She chimed up. "Here's a racket!"

As he took it, he suddenly appeared to glow red. "BURNING! WHAT ARCHERY? I'LL WIN IT ALL!" He yanked hard on the bowstring, only to snap it into to two. His shot skidded across the floor. As Inui moved in with the Juice, Kawamura cried "Oh _nooo_," in despair. A second later he slumped to the ground, the energy gone in that tiny moment.

Inui made a note that Kimiko was probably the sneakiest of the bunch.

"I can't lose to our baby boy!" Kikumaru proclaimed as he finished hitting his five cards. A pair of kings, a pair of tens, and one jack. "Two pair!" He declared with a grin.

Ryoma looked at the cards. He needed to get either two higher pairs, or a three of a kind to beat him. "Hmm…" He stretched the bowstring a few times, back and forth.

"Hee hee!" Kikumaru smirked. "You aren't tall enough to beat me!"

"I think it went like this…" Ryoma murmured to himself. Instead of pulling arrow back so it reached under his eye, he pulled it so that it was over his head. He released, and it shot straight into the two of spades.

"That's a low card, nya!" Kikumaru teased. "Doesn't the Inui Juice look tasty?"

Ryoma didn't say anything. He drew the bowstring a few more times, trying to find the right tension. He tried to imagine his eyes were above his head. It was harder to aim for something that wasn't eye-level. He aimed for the two of hearts, but the arrow went a bit higher and hit the four of clubs instead.

He frowned, re-adjusting his string some more. Once again aiming for the two of hearts, his arrow shot off and plunged into the five of spades.

Kikumaru snickered, arms folded behind his head. "You know if you don't get a single pair, you'll have to drink Inui Juice!"

"I know," he said, a tinge of irritation in his voice. He glanced back at the arrow, and then at the target, flexing the string. "Hmm," he murmured, tapping the bow. "So that's how it is." He took careful aim, and shot another arrow forward. This time it hit the two of hearts smack in the center. He smiled.

"Huh," Kikumaru said, moderately interested. "I guess you got a pair."

"Mada mada dane, Kikumaru-senpai!" And with that, his last arrow hit the two of clubs. "Three of a kind."

Kikumaru's eyes bugged out as he stared stupidly. "WHAAAAT? Rewind for a second! How did this HAPPEN!"

**~X~**

The game went on until only Fuji, Reina, Izumi and Ryoma were left. The rest were mostly slumped in a pile to the side of the dojo. Tezuka had lost interest in the game and was going back to his own practice. Kimiko, who was immune to the Juice in the first place, was content with sitting off to the side and watching. Inui was acting as referee for the final four. "And now let's have… Fuji and Echizen, and Reina-san and Morioka."

"This isn't going to end like billiards, Echizen," Fuji said as he drew his bow.

"Huh?" Ryoma glanced over, somewhat disconcerted. Was it possible that Fuji _still_ held a grudge against him for that time? His senpai was very frightening indeed.

"Full house," Fuji said, satisfied when he finished shooting. He turned to Ryoma's alley. Ryoma was counting up the arrows he'd shot.

"Hmmm. Ah," Ryoma murmured. Then he smirked and straightened up. "I hit a flush."

'_S-straight flush?_' Inui thought, dumbfounded. While Ryoma had been shooting, he'd shot the arrows at random intervals. He'd even missed one and hit another instead. How did it work out to be a straight flush? Was it luck? He exhaled. "Echizen, that's just like you."

Izumi had also emerged as victor from the other side.

"Guess it's down to you two," Inui said.

"I'll go first to give you a handicap," Izumi murmured as she readied her _yumi_.

Ryoma scowled slightly. "I don't need one…" he grumbled under his breath. Although letting her go first was a huge advantage. That way, he could see which cards she'd hit and hit higher ones to beat her.

Izumi released a shot. Ace of spades. Exhale. Another one. King of spades. Breathe. Another. Another.

"She's going for the highest hand possible," Fuji mused, noting the card choice. "A royal straight flush."

"In the spades suit," Reina added. "She's serious."

'_Only the ten of spades left…_' Izumi thought to herself. '_Don't mess up now._' She took longer in drawing her bow, forced herself to breathe, and let fly. The arrow sliced through the ten, dead center. Perfect.

"You have to hit the same hand as her, Echizen," Inui warned. "That's the only chance you have at beating her. That way, you can go into the tiebreak."

"I got it…" Ryoma muttered, walking into position. He lowered the bow to eye level, eyes on the ten of spades. It was sandwiched between a three and a six. He had to be careful. He first pulled his string back to the eye, taking carful aim. Then drawing the string back above his head, he released the shot. In plunged into the ten.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that?" Izumi asked, interested.

"I watched those people." He indicated with a tilt of his head. All of them turned around curiously. There was a group of younger pupils (probably middle school level) practicing at the far end of the dojo. As they watched, one of the pupils drew the bowstring right over his head in order to keep the arrow parallel with the ground.

"So that's how he did it," Inui said to himself. "He watched other people his height practice in order to see their solution to the height problem. Then he tested his solution out in the first two rounds."

Izumi watched with wonder. '_He figured out how to aim like that in that short a time? He's so observant..._'

"You're amazing, Echizen." Fuji said.

"Domo," he said as he released another shot, aiming for the king of spades that was between a ten and a four. This one went a little low. It hit the edge of the ten of hearts instead.

"So close," Reina said.

"I guess Morioka is our winner, then," Inui concluded. He was already reaching for the envelope.

"The game isn't finished yet," Ryoma suddenly cut in. He released another arrow. Ten of clubs.

"I hit the highest possible combination…" Izumi told him softly. "There isn't any way to beat it now. Your only hope was to hit the same cards and go into a tiebreak."

Ryoma's jaw was set stubbornly. "You don't know unless you try." He shot another arrow. Ten of diamonds."

"Even though you hit a four of a kind, that's still lower than—" Inui stopped, mouth open.

The solution hit them like a bus.

Ryoma, as it seemed, had found a loophole in the game.

"I see!" Fuji said, his eyes open. "If he hits the joker, the wild card, then that's five of a kind!"

"But the joker…" Reina pointed.

"Aa," Inui agreed. The joker was stuck within a ring of twos, threes, and the odd five here and there. All low cards. Furthermore, the cards around it were also farther apart, so if he missed, he'd probably hit the backboard instead. Which meant Inui Juice for him. It was also positioned at the right low corner, a place more awkward for left-handed archers. "It's a tough shot. Probability that he'll miss… 68 percent."

Izumi responded with a nod. It would've been hard even for her.

Ryoma looked at the card, tugging the bowstring experimentally. He tried to imagine a target painted on the card. Izumi's father's words echoed in his mind. '"_Find your peace!"_' He drew the bowstring back. The graceful pull of the bowstring wasn't that much different from a tennis swing, he realized. You were always aiming for a point on the other end. He steadied his arm.

'_Imagine it's a tennis racket…_'

He closed his eyes, preparing.

'_And the arrow is a tennis ball…_'

His fingers tightened around the bow.

'_And Horio's face is on the target..._'

"Heh." His eyes opened. He narrowed them, like a leopard ready to pounce. With resolve, he let go, the bowstring quivering against the wood.

_Thonk._

All of them stared.

Even Ryoma took a moment to recover.

Then immediately, he was back to his cheeky self. With a self-satisfied grin, he said, "Mada mada dane, Morioka-senpai."

~**X~**

Inui handed him the gift card. "Really, Echizen, do you know how to lose?"

Ryoma examined the gift card, looking very pleased. He looked up at his senpai, a blank expression on his face. "Why would I want to lose?"

"That's just like Echizen to win like that," Fuji chuckled. He turned to Izumi. "Don't mind it, he did it to me too…"

"I don't mind," Izumi said, even though she was fuming (just a little) inside.

The rest of the team was stirring. It seemed they were finally overcoming the effects of the Juice. Akane managed to prop herself up. "Let's do a little more practice, and then go back to school for afternoon training, okay?"

There were some unenthusiastic "Hai"s as the team stumbled to their feet and back to their respective targets to practice a little more.

Suddenly, the area was filled with whispers as Izumi walked towards a different target range. Heads were turning. The pupils parted for her like the Red Sea. A small crowd of dojo pupils gathered around her as she stepped into position. After exchanging a few confused glances, the regulars also joined the crowd.

"Ne, what's going on?" Kimiko asked, lavender eyes wide and curious.

Then they noticed the target that Izumi was aiming at. It was at least 60 meters away.

"No way! Is she really going to try and hit _that_?" Kikumaru cried in shock.

Izumi exhaled, allowing her whole body to relax. Almost in slow motion, lifted the bow above her head as a symbol, and lowered in front of her eyes. She arched her arm back, so graceful that some of the onlookers drew in a breath. There was just something ethereal about Izumi. The feathers tickled her cheekbone as she drew the arrow back. _Look_. Her dark eyes focused on the target. _Don't think about— _Exhale. _Why are you_—Inhale. Breathe. _Don't think. Just let it go._

_With this shot, you should die._

_You are reborn in the next._

She let go.

She let the arrow fly like it was a piece of her soul. The force from the release caused her hair to fly upwards slightly. She watched as the shaft disappeared into the target board. Two inches from the center.

"Sugoi!" The regulars applauded. (Ryoma felt like she stole his victory back from him again.) But many of the dojo students just sighed, and some of them even shook their heads in disappointment.

"Hey," Fuji walked up to one of the pupils and asked curiously, "Wasn't that a good shot? What's wrong?"

"Um," The girl blushed at being addressed by such a good-looking boy. "Well Morioka-senpai has always been one of the best archers here. And she used to be able to hit that target, dead center, every time. Sometimes Sensei would even have Morioka-senpai demonstrate to show us the level we were aiming for. But…" She trailed off, not sure how to continue.

"Something happened," Fuji surmised, looking over at Izumi. She was running a hand along her bow; the movement itself was filled with all longing and sadness in the world.

"Yeah…" the girl said quietly. She looked downwards. "It's like Sensei said. "_If your heart wavers, your shot wavers._" And ever since four or five months ago, Morioka-senpai has never been able to hit the bulleye's again."

**~X~**

An hour or two later, they all gathered for afternoon practice. Akane stood at the front of the girls. "Before I dismiss you guys, I want to announce the roster."

There were a few murmurs of excitement. "I'm all pumped for this match!" Sayaka declared.

"Doubles one, as usual, Aiko and Kimiko." The two doubles players looked at each other with a nod.

"Doubles two," Akane paused. "Sayaka and Suzume."

"Wait. _What?_" both of them yelled.

"She sucks at doubles!" Sayaka argued, pointing an accusing finger. In the background, Ryoma nodded vehemently. He distinctly remembered that time that he and Suzume crashed into each other during doubles practice. That was pretty painful.

"I hate to say it, but Namazu-chan is right," Suzume said. "I hate doubles."

Akane crossed her arms. "Kimura, I've never known you to back down from a challenge."

Suzume glared silently. '_Oh no, she's not going to bait me like this…_'

"I know you're good. We all know that. And we need to bring out the big guns early in our Hyotei match. Can you understand that?" Akane's eyes glinted threateningly. "Can you do that?"

Suzume gave in with an irritated sigh. "Fine. Doubles two, then. With Namazu-chan." She shot a look over at Sayaka. "You were right when you said that it's a 'challenge'."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean, you stupid sparrow!"

"Singles three," Akane commanded their attention once more. She exchanged a glance with Oishi quickly. The others looked perplexed. Was something wrong? "Singles three," she repeated decisively, and locked her steady captain's eyes onto the individual in question.

"Singles three will be Sakuno."

"EH?"

"Ryuzaki in _Singles?_"

"But—"

Sakuno felt her racket drop to the ground in pure shock. She had gone white.

"S-Singles?"

**~X~**

End Chapter Twenty Three.

**A/N: **So yeah, sorry for no Sakuno development in this chapter. Because I have big plans for her in the future!

Actually, the next chapter will probably be their opening match against Hyotei. Which will be Sayaka and Suzume's match. (I'll go into a _little_ detail here…) and a big part will be Aiko and Kimiko. I'm developing these two (finally) YAY! I meant to have an Aiko as waitress-in-training scene in this chapter, but it just didn't fit. Wait for it.

The archery game was also used in my Naruto fanfic, but that one is discontinued. Yay for recycling ideas. And this probably won't be the last "Prince of _" chapter.

I know there are a lot of loyal reviewers out there, and some awesome new ones (like **BellaLuz64**, **laughsandgiggles** and **Isca Lancaster**) so don't be dismayed if you didn't make my hotlist. Maybe you will next time.

I also know that there are people who read but don't review. Nudge nudge. A review can really brighten my day, you know. –guilttrips-

**IMPORTANT: xxTemarixx**, **thesadistttensaifuji, **and **AquaJet **have all written birthday fics for me. Please do go and check them out! From Temari, I requested a Zaizen-centric fic. From Tensai, I requested a ShishidoOC fic. And from AquaJet, I requested a RyoSaku fic. They're all awesome friends and are so kind for doing it.

And I also wrote a YanagiOC oneshot fic myself! So if you have time, go check that out please!

Long author's note. So yeah, leave a review for this (belated) birthday girl!


	24. Firecracker

**Disclaimer:** Don't own.

**A/N: **Yeah, it's been almost a year since I've updated. NO BIG DEAL.

If anyone is still following and reading this fanfic, this chapter is for you.

I'm sorry. I got busy with school and work. I was also busy in getting my heart broken and trampled on. Basically, I had this thing with a boy. And when it ended a couple weeks ago, it was just clear to me that I cared for him a lot more than he cared for me. So, I've been kind of in a funk ever since.

Special dedications to… **agate . ilie, ****arika ito**,** teanotes,** **mintish, fried ryce**, **ash-na**, **ElsieLorraine**. Your reviews helped me through a rough time. Extra love to **KurukiXV,** **Lilyice**, **Bananablez**, **cityangelz**, and **Maria-Reynne** – some of the few pennames I can remember due to their unwavering loyalty to the story.

Doubly special dedication to **PandaEyedTsundere**, who came up with the idea for Kimiko's funny little scene near the end of the story like a year ago. And to **Mirilla**. She drew a beautiful fanart of Izumi. If you search Morioka Izumi on deviantart, you should be able to find it.

**To recap:** In the last chapter, they did archery at the Morioka household. They also trained in preparation for Hyotei, and Sakuno got slotted into Singles 3. WHUT.

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter 24: Firecracker**

**~X~**

"_S-singles?"_

Like a fish thrashing on a beach, Sakuno felt disoriented and panicked and completely out of her element. '_I'm a doubles player! Even Akane-buchou said so herself when I first joined! They wanted me for my skill in doubles, so why_…"

"For warming up, 30 laps around the court! Girl regulars, 22 laps!" Tezuka ordered.

Sakuno approached Akane rapidly. "T-there must be some mistake," she said desperately. "I'm n—"

"Sakuno, I believe you are supposed to be running laps right now," Akane interrupted.

Sakuno was shocked at the coldness in Akane's voice. "B-But—"

"Whatever it is, let's discuss it after practice," And with that, the ginger haired captain deliberately turned away.

Sakuno stood there, gaping for a moment. Hearing the footsteps of her teammates speed past her, she quickly joined them in running the laps. All the while, her thoughts were scrambled up in her mind.

Singles?

'_But I'm_…'

_Singles?_

'_I can barely keep up with the rest of the girls_,' she thought frantically as they huffed and puffed through the laps, their breaths becoming visible mist in the cold. '_Why would they put me in singles? And in the _Hyotei_ match…_' Thinking about Hyotei brought on a whole new wave of terror.

"Isn't it good?" Ryoma's voice suddenly came from next to her. "Singles."

"R-Ryoma-kun…" She panted slightly, trying to control her breathing. "I… I guess… but I don't play singles and it's… _Hyotei_…"

He gave her a blank look. "What about Hyotei?"

"They're really strong!"

"Hmm…" He appeared to consider this. Atobe's grinning face suddenly resurfaced in his mind, and he grimaced involuntarily. Then he shrugged. "But the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?"

"I… I guess…" Sakuno tried to agree with him. But inside, she was afraid that she'd be the one doing the falling.

**~X~**

"I can't believe I'm paired with you…" Sayaka grumbled as she hit a ball down the line.

Suzume smirked as she easily hit it back. "Maybe they wanted me to balance out your lack of skill."

"Hey, you!" Sayaka flipped upwards and smashed the ball down.

Suzume caught it in a volley, the ball hitting the court before Sayaka came down from her jump. The black haired girl grinned in spite of herself. "Nice one."

They had been rallying for some time now, and Suzume was starting to get a better grasp on her movements. She stopped to readjust her grip, frowning. "Hey, you're going to have to help me with this doubles thing, you know."

"Oh? Not so cocky now, are you?" Sayaka couldn't help but say. In terms of doubles, she was far more skilled than Suzume. The latter paid too much attention to her own plays and not enough on her partner.

"I'm serious. Hyotei isn't going to be easy if Saki-senpai didn't even manage to take away a point."

Sayaka bounced the ball up and down a few times thoughtfully. "I'm still wondering why you got stuck in doubles with me. I thought they'd shove you in singles three, you know, to freak out whoever's your opponent."

Suzume spun the racket in her hand. "Maybe Hyotei has sucky doubles. We have to hit 'em where it hurts."

"Then we should've stuck with the original partners," Sayaka challenged. "Since you're horrible at doubles and I pair well with Sakuno."

Suzume glared. "Watch it, Namazu-chan."

"Why _is _Sakuno in singles?" Sayaka inquired, choosing to ignore the direct argument. She glanced over at the brown haired girl. Sakuno was rallying a ball with Reina, and with difficulty too. "I mean, fine, maybe you can play better, so they stuck you with me in doubles. Why not put Reina-senpai in singles? Or Izumi-senpai?"

Suzume simply shrugged. "Buchou is always trying to test us one way or the other…" She glanced over at the ginger-headed captain. "Who knows what goes on in her head?"

**~X~**

_Half an hour ago…_

"You want to put Ryuzaki in singles three?" Oishi all but yelped. "Against _Hyotei_?"

They were in the classroom deciding the order for the upcoming matches. "Yes, I do," Akane said determinedly. "It's about time."

"Why? I thought we agreed that Reina-san would take singles 3!"

For a moment, Akane just looked outside the window. Then she sighed, turning back to him. "I've wronged Ryuzaki," she said in a low voice. "You know that. I told her she'd be good at doubles and then crushed her in singles. And now she's under this notion that she's only good for doubles." She ran a hand through her wavy ginger locks. "Do you know what that does to a person? It limits them completely. If we don't put Sakuno in singles, she'll be trapped."

The vice-captain tried to smile. "D-does it really matter that much? People like Eiji and Marui-san are great doubles players and they don't need to take on a singles match to do it…"

"But you, Kikumaru, Kimiko…" She shook her head. "It's different. You all became doubles players of your own accord. You found your path to doubles after you mastered the skills of singles. Sakuno… was _pushed_ into doubles."

Akane was probably the only one that knew exactly how much psychological damage Sakuno suffered. "She's won every doubles match she's played and she's lost every singles match she's played. What do you think that tells her?" She sounded like she was arguing with herself; she was angry with herself. "If we put her in singles, even if she loses, it shows that we trust her."

"Seigaku could lose to Hyotei," Oishi pointed out.

Akane stared idly out at the window some more before replying. "We have me and Chiharu in singles one and two."

Oishi grew frustrated. Sakuno, as much as she was improving, was still leagues behind everyone else. "But if we can't win the doubles matches... Chiharu-san and you might not even get to play. It's such a great risk…" He paused, wondering how to word his thoughts. "I just think Ryuzaki's not ready."

Something in Akane's eyes snapped all of a sudden, and her voice became cold. Oishi was shocked at the fierce look in her eyes as she looked at him again, almost challenging him. "I believe in Sakuno, Oishi. And it's about time you did too."

"I…" He was startled. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

Her expression softened just as quickly, the fierce look disappearing like a cat's claws being retracted. "No," she sighed, her voice sounding somewhat tired. "Don't be. I'm sorry. I just... I really want to make things right with Sakuno," Her voice hardened again. "Even if it means sacrificing a win against Hyotei."

_I don't want to ruin her tennis anymore_.

While Oishi disagreed with her choice, he began to understand.

**~X~**

_CLANG_. That was the sound of the ball lodging itself in the green wire fence.

_Thunk,_ was the sound of Kimiko's jaw hitting the floor.

"That was…" She gulped. "That wasn't…"

"Not the Hadokyuu…" Reina confirmed, gazing at where the ball landed. "But close enough. Well done, Aiko."

Aiko stared at her racket in slight awe. She never thought she could produce a shot like _that_.

"I'll say its close enough!" Kimiko declared happily, running over to her partner. "Mou, I can't believe no one else was around to see that!" She raised a hand to clasp Aiko's. "I can't wait till we give it to those Hyotei people!" Suddenly she stilled as Aiko's skin met her own. She could feel the roughness of her senpai's palm, like sandpaper. How calloused was her hand?

How many times did she swing her racket?

'_How hard did she have to work for that?_'

And she couldn't help but notice how soft and smooth her own hands were in comparison.

Kimiko suddenly dropped their connecting hands, her expression downcast.

"Kims?" Aiko said. "You okay?"

The pink haired girl abruptly picked up her racket and walked away without another word, leaving her doubles partner dumbstruck.

"Don't worry," Reina said, taking a few steps forward. Her glasses glinted. "She'll be okay. On the contrary, you just inspired her."

**~X~**

"So this is the Seigaku team…" A guy with a baseball cap commented.

"That one, over there," A blonde girl pointed at Chiharu. "That'll be your opponent, Shigohara. What do you think?"

The girl with dark brown hair observed her for a moment. "She's pretty."

Her response caused the others to chuckle.

"Try not to be too confident," a blue-haired boy warned. "You'll want to watch out for that one."

"Oshitari," the girl twinkled at him. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

He broke into a smile. "Fair enough."

**~X~**

Suzume suddenly noticed something and refrained from serving. "Hey, Namazu-chan," she said quietly, clutching the ball in her hand. She jerked her head towards the edge of the fence.

Sayaka looked up and saw some gray and white clad figures standing outside of the fence. Three boys, two girls. "Hyotei, huh…" she murmured.

Suddenly, Sayaka saw Akane walk over to the fence to talk to them. "Oi, what do you think buchou is saying to them?"

Suzume rolled her eyes. "Knowing her, something along the lines of, 'Hi, I'm Ito Akane. I thought it'd only be polite for me to give you fair warning that we will _destroy_ you tomorrow.' "

Sayaka couldn't help but laugh at that. It sounded like something Akane would say. "Still, I wonder why they're here…" she pondered aloud, running a hand through her wild hair. If they were checking out the competition, it would only mean that they saw Seigaku as a threat. She grinned to herself. '_That's what we are. We're gonna dethrone the kings of Hyotei._'

**~X~**

"So, why are you here?" Akane asked with measured sweetness. "To intimidate us or to gather intel?"

"Psh," Shishido scoffed. "As if we need to do either of those things. We'll beat you into the ground fair and square."

"Shishido-san…" Choutarou started.

"Excuse him," Oshitari interjected apologetically. "We're here to introduce ourselves and we hope to have a great game tomorrow."

"Likewise," Akane agreed, shooting Shishido a knowing look. He shifted, looking a little fazed and uncomfortable. Akane then turned her questioning gaze towards the two girls.

"Shigohara Minako," the girl said with a polite nod, as the fence prevented them from shaking hands. "I will enjoy playing against you."

Akane gave her a nod in response. "You've already figured out that singles one is Oshiro, not me," She smiled. "Don't pretend that you didn't already know."

The girl didn't waver, but smiled as well. "I see you've also figured out that I will be playing singles one."

"We did our research well."

"As did we."

Oshitari observed the cool banter between the two with quiet amusement.

Shigohara Minako had a sort of polished, refined feel to her, Akane decided. She carried herself with an instilled grace. Her brown wavy hair was shiny and glamorous, held in place with a jeweled hair clip. And the way she talked… she didn't sound _snobby_, per say, but her voice definitely had a superior lilt to it.

'_Of course,_' Akane thought to herself wryly. '_She goes to Hyotei. Self-explanatory._'

"What's up, Akane-buchou?"

The ginger headed captain looked up as Sayaka and Suzume joined them. "Just greeting our new opponents," she responded with a glance. "Shouldn't you two be practicing?" There was an edge in her voice; even the Hyotei students heard it.

Sayaka shivered slightly, but Suzume didn't even flinch. "We were, but _she's _staring at us hard I expect lasers to shoot out of her eyes any minute." Suzume jerked her head towards the blonde girl next to Shigohara

The girl smiled and mimed extending a hand through the fence. "Fuuma Eri, Hyotei third year."

"Momoshiro Sayaka, Seigaku second year," Sayaka replied.

Shishido glanced her way. "Not related to…"

"His twin," Sayaka replied, almost wearily.

"Oh?" A tiny bit of interest crept in his voice.

"You don't play like him…" Oshitari commented.

"You're observant, Hyotei's genius," Suzume remarked sarcastically.

Oshitari was taken aback for a moment. Then he smiled. So she'd heard of him too.

"Well, we should get back to our own practice," Shigohara said, turning away, brown hair swishing. "Nice meeting you."

"Same here," Akane told her with extra charm and politeness. The former Seigaku captain was one of the more rational and mature people in the team, but even she was tempted to stick her tongue out at Shigohara's back.

Fuuma took a few steps before looking over her shoulder at Sayaka. "You better fix that landing problem of yours before you face us tomorrow."

Sayaka froze.

"And you," Fuuma said, turning to Suzume. "It's your first time playing doubles, isn't it?"

"Well that's gonna be embarrassing," Suzume replied in a taunting tone. "Getting beaten by a newbie."

Fuuma merely chuckled to herself and continued to walk away.

"How did they know?" Sayaka asked as soon as she was out of earshot, slightly panicked. The Hyotei members hadn't been watching for more than ten minutes, and she hadn't attempted any big jumps. Her landing problem couldn't be _that_ obvious.

"She's smart," Akane just said.

"_Really_ smart."

"Put Reina-senpai against her," Suzume suggested, indifferently picking at a nail. "Have the nerds duke it out."

"Reina-san would lose." Inui's voice suddenly came from behind them.

"Eh? Why?" Sayaka asked in surprise. Suzume raised a quizzical brow.

"Because Reina-san," Inui indicated at the girl, who was rallying a ball with Izumi. "She processes information differently compared to Fuuma. She sees patterns, repetitions. She draws the big picture before filling in details."

"Fuuma," he continued. "On the other hand, is detail-oriented. She sees the little things before building up on that to see the big picture. She sees the parts before the whole thing."

"Bottom-up processing." Akane clarified.

"Exactly," Inui confirmed. "She catches on the little things. It's faster. She'd think faster and react faster than Reina-san."

"So if they're equally smart, Fuuma would react faster?" Sayaka asked, disbelief in her voice. "Just because of the way she _thinks_?" '_Should I change the way I think? Wait, I don't even know how I think._'

Inui paused. "Think of it like this. When Reina played against you, she noticed that you have a repetitive routine within three games. She sealed it off afterwards. Fuuma, on the other hand, caught onto your landing problem within seconds of watching you. She could exploit that so much more quickly."

"Enough with the explanation," Akane suddenly cut in. "You two, back to practice. Sayaka, you better get rid of that landing problem and Suzume, I want you to seem like you've been playing doubles for years by the end of today."

"You got it," Sayaka raised her hand in a lofty salute.

"Fine," Suzume muttered, before walking back onto the court. After all, it was hard to argue after you'd just been dissed by your opponent.

**~X~**

Practice ended late that day. Sakuno looked over at the red-haired captain warily. She didn't want to be cut down with another harsh remark. But she was so, so confused. Gathering her courage, she approached her once more. "Akane-buchou…" Breathe. "Akane-buchou, why am I in singles?"

Akane looked right into her eyes. "Why not?"

"E-eh?"

"Why not?" she repeated. "Isn't it good? Singles allows you to shine alone."

For a moment she was caught off-guard. "Th-then Aiko-senpai should take singles!" Sakuno offered frantically. "She's always wanted to play…" Her voice trailed off.

Akane was silent for a moment and just looked at her. Just looked at her with those brilliant turquoise eyes, those eyes that could put a shiver down her spine, those eyes that could light a fire within her, those eyes that could make or break her again. And it was all she could do to stand her ground.

"You see, Sakuno?" Akane finally said. "This is why I put you in singles."

"Eh?"

Akane exhaled. "You can't be _scared_ of singles. Everyone is a singles player first. Tennis is a solo sport most of the time."

"But… Oishi-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai…" Sakuno tried to point out.

"Can kick-ass at singles as well," Akane finished. "Sakuno, you need to be confident. Believe in yourself."

"But—"

"You can't improve in tennis if you always depend on someone else," she continued. "You can't always expect to look back and see your partner there."

"But…" Sakuno was growing desperate. "Akane-buchou… It's _Hyotei._" Couldn't Akane have put her in singles against a lesser school?

"The schools are only going to get stronger from here on," Akane told her.

Sakuno remained silent, knowing she was right.

Akane offered an encouraging smile. "Everyone else already believes in you. Why don't you believe in yourself?"

**~X~**

"I'm surprised that you called me out here so late…" Sakiko pulled her tennis racket out of her bag, tossing it aside. The street tennis courts were desolate at this time of night. The wind rustled the leaves, giving the area an eerie atmosphere.

Suzume swung her racket back and forth experimentally, testing it. "It's Hyotei. I need the extra practice. If only we had you on the team…"

"You wouldn't have much of an advantage, anyways," Sakiko cut in, serving a ball. They got a rally going. "I got flattened. Besides, Seigaku rejected my transfer application."

"Yeah, that blows," Suzume ran for a shot that was to her left. She lobbed it upwards, watching the arc form. "Did you get accepted anywhere else?" She knew that Sakiko sent in applications to several schools in the hope of finishing her senior year someplace else.

"Yeah, get this," Sakiko smirked. "Hyotei accepted me."

"What?" Suzume suddenly stopped, and the ball sailed past her right ear. "Wait, _what_?"

"Yeah, I got the acceptance letter a few days ago," the white-haired girl bounced a new ball on the ground casually. "I can't afford the tuition though, so there's no chance of me going." She brushed the hair out of her eyes and served.

"Thank god," Suzume continued the rally, slightly relieved. She had no intention of facing Sakiko on the courts again. Not that she'd ever let her senpai know, but Sakiko far surpassed her in skill and Suzume both respected and feared her. The red-haired girl hit a smash. "I hate those people."

"Suzume, you hate everyone that's an opponent."

"Damn straight."

Sakiko sighed and served again. "Your shots are getting sharper," she noticed as she broke into a run to reach one of them. "Nice."

Suzume pinpointed a shot to the corner, but Sakiko read it and volleyed it back. "You're not doing so bad yourself," the red-headed girl admitted, chasing her shot down. "Who was the girl that beat you again?"

"Shigohara."

"We saw her today," Suzume recalled the girl with the shiny brown hair and 'I'm-better-than-you' voice. "Snooty b*tch."

"She can live up to her words, though, I'll give her that." Sakiko went for a smash, white pigtails flying.

Suzume managed to catch it, barely dropping it over the net. "Chiharu-senpai's got a challenge coming her way."

"Your teammate actually has a shot at beating her," Sakiko said thoughtfully as she lunged for a drop shot. The shot hit the net and bounced back to her side. "When I played Oshiro, she wasn't even playing to half her potential."

"Well, Shigohara's only one member," Suzume reached into her pocket for a new ball while Sakiko kicked the one on the ground to the side. "I have no idea why they put me in doubles, anyways."

"Hyotei has weak doubles," Sakiko confirmed. "Well, weak compared to their singles, which isn't saying much."

"I thought you guys didn't get a single point."

"No, that was just me," Sakiko's voice had a trace of bitterness. More than just a trace. "But our doubles team took several points away." Ann had, in fact, played on the doubles one team and got close to taking a game away.

"Then I guess they're relying on me to take down the doubles team," Suzume threw up the ball and hit it. "Which is weird, since doubles is definitely not my forte."

"That Momoshiro girl you're paired with is really good at doubles," Sakiko informed her, parrying the ball back. "I watched her in the Fudomine match. She's pretty incredible."

"She's all right," Suzume said begrudgingly.

Sakiko stopped suddenly, catching the ball in her hand. She stared at Suzume incredulously. "You really don't have any idea, do you?"

"What?" Suzume asked in irritation. She hated it when people spoke in riddles.

Sakiko shook her head. "Your doubles partner?" she said, walking towards the net. "She's the most versatile player I've ever seen. You could probably pair her with an elephant and she would still find some way to win."

**~X~**

This time, the order of the games was reversed, and the girls' matches took place first. As they walked towards the courts where the games would be held, the din was deafening. It was like walking into a rock concert.

"_The winner will be Hyotei! The winner will be Hyotei!_"

"You've got to be kidding me…" Sayaka breathed, whipping her head around and staring at the crowd in awe. "Exactly how many cheerleaders do they have?"

"Two hundred and four," Inui suddenly popped up from next to her, causing her to jump. He adjusted his lenses. "Fourteen more than last year."

Fuji chuckled. "It's quite an atmosphere, isn't it?" He smiled. "I love playing with this kind of audience."

"Only _you_ would like playing with a crowd that is screaming for your bloody demise," Suzume muttered darkly.

"Hyotei is always so noisy," Kikumaru complained. He glowered at the crowd as if he could shut them up with his eyes.

Aiko was carrying Kimiko on her back; the latter peacefully snoozing. "How can she sleep with this crowd?" Kikumaru exclaimed in astonishment. Then he noticed the giant headphones she was wearing on her head. With a mischievous grin, he stealthily crept up, preparing to snatch the headphones off her ears…

Until a single glare from Aiko stopped him dead.

He swallowed, laughed nervously, and backed off. Funny how that girl really didn't need to learn the language to communicate.

"_HYOTEI. HYOTEI. HYOTEI. HYO-_"

Suddenly the noise stopped. The Seigaku regulars immediately snapped their heads up, looking for the source of silence. A lone gray-haired figure stood in the middle of the courts, his finger pointed to the sky.

"It'll be me!" Atobe declared, and the crowd erupted in cheers. The Seigaku team half-expected the crowd to start throwing confetti up into the air.

"He's not even playing now," Momoshiro grumbled. "What's with the theatrics?"

"Smug bastard…" Kaidoh fshhhhed in agreement.

Ryoma couldn't hide his smile. "Monkey king is Monkey king…"

**~X~**

"We will now begin Doubles two! Seishun Gakuen, Momoshiro-Kimura pair!"

"You ready, Namazu-chan?" Suzume rested her racket against her shoulder casually, waiting for her partner.

"Are you kidding me?" Sayaka grinned and pulled her body back into a triple flip, landing right at the service line. Her eyes glowed in anticipation. "I was born ready."

The crowd dissolved into awed whispers. "What was _that…_"

"Show off," Suzume shook her head, but the tone was affectionate.

"Hyotei Gakuen, Gamaro-Omae pair!"

Upon hearing the announcement, both the Seigaku girls turned to survey their opponents. Unfortunately for both girls, their eyes had to travel upwards. "Holy shit, she's tall…" Sayaka whispered, feeling like a midget. Sayaka was actually the tallest among all the girls on the Seigaku team, with Aiko coming in as a close second. But this girl, Gamaro, _dwarfed_ her. '_This is what normal people feel like next to me, I guess…_' she thought to herself wryly.

Gamaro's partner, Omae, was average height, but she looked extremely short next to her partner. Suzume took in the fierce look in her eye and the defined muscles in her arms. '_Her height might be average, but her skills certainly won't be._' She was definitely not to be underestimated.

"One set match! Omae to serve!"

Sayaka and Suzume both took their places. The red-haired girl tossed her bangs out of her green eye and stared down her opponents, almost as if she was daring them. '_Try me._'

Omae threw the ball up. _BAM._

A second later it was bouncing behind them.

"Fifteen-love!"

Sayaka whirled around. "…the _hell?_" She hadn't even _seen_ the ball. How did it end up behind her? She clenched her hand around her tennis racket to hide the trembling. "Oi, Kimura…"

Suzume shrugged as if she was unimpressed, but Sayaka noticed how she sharpened her gaze onto the server.

That was no ordinary serve.

Omae served again. _BAM._

Of all the fancy serves they expected, they didn't expect something like _that_. It was pure destructive force. However, Suzume wasn't about to let it get away from her this time. She sprinted up front, but the ball slipped passed her and she swung at air. With a loud '_clang_', it bounced into the fence. The crowd hushed in astonishment, but she just looked down at her arm and swung her racket a few times, dissatisfied. "Che."

"Thirty-love!"

"W-what's with that serve?" Horio stammered in shock.

"That's nearly on the same level as your bullet serve, Momoshiro," Inui said.

"Yeah…" he responded. "But for a girl to hit that, that's pretty good…"

"Muscle training," Aiko said, noting the strong muscles in her arms, just like hers. "She's done muscle training."

"A lot of it too, it seems," Kawamura agreed.

Omae sneered at them, brandishing her racket like a sword. "How do you like my serve?" she taunted.

"I don't," Suzume replied directly.

Several Seigaku team members had to bite on their lips to hide their laughter. Suzume was as arrogant as ever, no matter how grave the situation was.

Omae served again, and it really was like watching a gun being fired. _BANG._

Only this time the bullet was stopped. Suzume raced down the court and swung an almighty swing with her racket, letting out a yell. It connected, causing most of the crowd to start in surprise.

"Good shot!" Akane exclaimed, clasping a hand. The ball soared over the net and far out of the reach of the other two.

"Not bad," Omae said as the ball whizzed by. Then she smirked. "But…"

They gasped as a tall, ominous shadow suddenly appeared.

It only took Gamaro two strides to reach the ball.

"Forty-love!"

Oishi let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. They almost had that point. "She knows how to use her height to her best advantage."

"Even if the ball's on the opposite side of the court," Inui murmured. "She would only need a few steps to catch up to it."

"Her partner's fast, too," Akane commented, watching as another rally began with that explosive serve. Suzume managed to return it once more with a reckless backhand, the ball just barely staying in the court. "And she has to be. She needs to get into position in order to make that big swing."

"Just like Kawamura-senpai's Hadokyuu, right?" Katsuo asked.

"Exactly."

The ball bounced up, high, and Omae leaped for the sky. Her body made a perfect arc as she slammed her racket down on the ball. Her smash was like a meteor. The impact knocked the racket from Sayaka's hands.

"Game, Hyotei. One game to love."

Sayaka felt her blood go cold. She could barely even _see_ the ball, how was she supposed to hit it? '_She's so strong…_' she thought, her eye following the girl. Before entering the match, Sayaka actually believed that she stood a pretty good chance against Hyotei. She never thought that they'd be _monsters_. That serve, the sheer _power_ in Omae's swing looked like it would snap her arm in half. Her thoughts drifted back to the arm wrestling match she had with her brother in the mountains.

'_"Maybe I should work on some more muscle training… in case any of my opponents play power tennis, you know? What if Kawamura-senpai has a girl counterpart?"_'

She cringed at her own words. It was always on her mind to work on basics like muscle training and footwork, but other things had taken over and she'd never gotten around to doing it. Muscle training was mundane and boring and just so much _work._ Why would she do that when she could work on her acrobatics instead? Now she was regretting the fact that she'd brushed it lightly aside. '_Her shots, they're too strong…_'

The next game involved them both scrambling around each other, trying desperately to hit the balls back. Even catching up to the shots was near impossible. Omae's shots were more than just powerful, they were well timed, and Gamaro could reach any ball. Sayaka felt like they saw right through her. When she lobbed, Omae would smash. When she hit a cross shot, Gamaro would fetch it. And when she volleyed, they would lob it right behind her.

"Game, Hyotei! Two games to love!"

"Those two are doing surprisingly well…" Akane commented.

"You mean the Hyotei pair?" Inui asked. "Well, we knew they were going to be skilled."

"No, I mean our pair."

"EHHH?" Horio exclaimed in disbelief after making sure that Akane wasn't sarcastic. "What are you talking about! We're two games down and we haven't even scored a point!"

"But that's because of a difference in skill," Akane said, watching as Gamaro served an ace past the Seigaku pair.

"Well… isn't that bad?" Horio asked confusedly, exchanging befuddled glances with the other freshmen. Several regulars also looked at her for an explanation.

"Somehow, in this short a time…" Chiharu said softly. "Suzume-chan learned how to play doubles."

"That's right," Oishi said, realization dawning on him. "They haven't had any combination issues!" Their combination wasn't _flawless_, but it was good. Very good, in fact, he thought to himself as Sayaka covered the court while Suzume made the shot. Especially considering the last time that Suzume played doubles she collided with her partner.

"It's astonishing how quickly she learned that," Kawamura said. "Even yesterday their partnership still looked rough. It took me at least a week to learn doubles properly."

"What does this mean though?" Momoshiro demanded. "Their combination is on par with Hyotei but their skill isn't?"

"Exactly that," Akane said.

"Well then, what does it mean for them?"

"It means that how they're playing is not enough," she said, her eyes flashing with a hard light. "If they want to win, they're going to have to bring it to a whole new level."

**~X~**

Sayaka cartwheeled on one hand, her racket held in her other. Just as she swung at the ball, it bounced upwards and almost hit her. She landed harshly on her feet, heart pounding, as the ball rolled to a stop behind her.

"Sayaka-chan is getting frustrated…" Chiharu said quietly.

"Let's see how Suzume deals with that," Akane replied.

The black-haired gymnast swore under her breath. Her limbs felt sluggish and choppy instead of swift and fluid. The ball was just coming too fast. How was she supposed to calculate the speed and toss up her racket if she couldn't keep up with the shots? Something stabbed at her when she remembered that she had yet to return a single ball.

Suzume knew that her partner was struggling, but she wasn't about to dwell on it. _'Whatever's bothering her, she'll get over it.'_ Sayaka wasn't the type to let something ruin her game. Izumi was. Reina was. Heck, even Kikumaru and Momoshiro – if something was detrimental enough, they would have a hard time regaining their focus. Not Sayaka. She was so easygoing; she could bounce back from anything. Literally.

"Game, Hyotei! Three games to love!"

"Yo, Namazu-chan," Suzume was looking at her, a little critically and a little disdainfully. "What happened to your Rhythmic Gymnastics?"

Her eyes went back to the other side of the court. Her words were like a whisper. "I can't do it…"

"What?"

"I can't do it, okay?" Sayaka blurted frantically. "I can't!" To her horror, she felt tears prick the corners of her eyes and looked down to hide them. '_I won't let you see me cry._' A faint red crept up into her cheeks from embarrassment.

Suzume surveyed her silently for a moment before making a "tch" noise. "Dude, chill out."

She felt like throwing her racket at the ground. Or at her partner. "What do you mean, '_chill out_'! We're three games behind!"

"Really?" Suzume said, sarcasm dripping from every word. "I hadn't noticed."

Her belittling response stunned Sayaka for a moment. Then she lashed out, "Do you even _care_?"

Suzume leveled her with a stare, right into her eyes. "If you ask me, you're the one that doesn't seem to care. You're already thinking of running away."

There was a tense moment where Sayaka just glared at Suzume and the latter stared defiantly back. And then she realized. '_She's not the enemy._'

Something within Sayaka crumbled. "I can't…" Her voice was low and hollow. "The shots are too fast, too powerful. I can't let go of my racket. I can barely keep up while doing basic gymnastics. I just…"

"Namazu-chan," she cut her off brutally. "Get your shit together."

There was a beat of silence where Sayaka didn't know how to respond. Then her blood boiled. "_Excuse _me?"

But Suzume had already turned away and took her position.

"Hey!" Sayaka shouted at her back. Still no response. She was squeezing her racket so tightly that her palm was hurting; the grooves of the grip were probably leaving red imprints in her skin. This was supposed to be her partner, her _teammate_. '_How can she say that? Can't she see that I need her help?_'

Horio almost leapt behind Kikumaru in fright after seeing that fiery argument. "This is bad…"

"Is Sayaka's skill more exceptional when she is splenetic?" Reina asked Momoshiro curiously.

"Does Sayaka-san play better when she's angry?" Inui translated immediately, before he even had time to look confused. "Because Kimura is intentionally provoking her," he explained.

Momoshiro shook his head slowly, uncertain. "I don't think _anyone_ plays better when they're angry."

'_That's not true. You do, and Kaidoh does._' Inui mused to himself. He looked back to the court, his notebook open. What happened next would be interesting.

**~X~**

' "_Get your shit together_."'

She bit her lip angrily. What was that supposed to mean? _'I just can't do my gymnastics right now because I can't even keep up with the shots. Why can't she understand that?' _

' "_Get your shit together_."'

Easy for her to say. At least Suzume had enough strength to return Omae's shots.

She should've known that she would be outmatched in skill in a match with Hyotei. At this point, she hadn't even been able to return a shot to that side of the net. She hadn't even been able to hit a ball without it knocking her racket away. How could she add acrobatics to that if she couldn't even just _hit the damn ball back_?

She almost felt like laughing bitterly. Reina had overanalyzed her situation so, so much. Her biggest obstacle wasn't people reading her movements and memorizing her routine. It was being able to hit the ball.

' "_Get your shit together_."'

Couldn't Suzume see that this wasn't a temporary case of nerves or a bad day? She just _couldn't_ do it. She was _physically incapable_ of doing it. _'She can't just expect me to be able to do this…'_

Out of the blue, something came to mind and she stopped. 'Wait…'

Her own words echoed in her mind. _'She can't just expect me to be able to do this…_'

_'Wait,_' Clarity hit her. '_She expects me to be able to do this?_'

_'She thinks I can do it. She believes in me…_' Suzume, the sparrow that didn't trust anyone, had put her trust in her. Somehow, this bit of knowledge made Sayaka feel so much more capable. Even if she didn't think she could do it, Suzume, of all people, believed she could. A small, reluctant grin made its way onto her face. '_Well, I guess I can't disappoint, right?' _she thought to herself, gripping her racket tightly and lowering her torso in anticipation. '_Besides, if I have enough strength in my arms to launch myself a couple meters into the air, why shouldn't I be able to return a shot?_' She paused. '_Well, I'm pretty light. But whatever._'

Suzume slid to the end of the court to hit a flat shot back. The return went to the other side, and she sprinted after it. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Sayaka had stopped moving. _'She better not have given up_,' Suzume thought threateningly, as the ball met her racket. The force stretched the gut of her racket and she almost lost control of the shot. With a glare at Omae, she pushed against the force as hard as she could, sending the ball over the net. '_I'll take you on myself if I have to._'

"It's rare to see Kimura on the defensive…" Inui commented, writing it down in his green book.

"She doesn't have a choice," Fuji concluded. "They're being overwhelmed by Hyotei's power."

"Sayaka-chan isn't really doing her acrobatics either," Kikumaru mentioned. "Look, she's just standing there…"

"She hasn't been able to return a single shot," Aiko said, watching Suzume run across the court again and again. She was reminded of the game against Fudomine where she tried to take their opponents on by herself and almost winced at the memory. She was so bad at doubles back then.

"Damn!" Suzume spat as she dove for another ball, already knowing she was too far. Her arms scraped the ground painfully.

Out of nowhere, a black shape shot upwards into a somersault and slammed her racket into the ball on its bounce. It skidded to the very edge of the court, barely within the boundaries. As she landed, she gave Suzume a grin. "I got your back."

"Forty-fifteen!"

Momoshiro let out a triumphant whoop. "Yes! That's how we do it!"

"That's one point, baka. Don't get so excited," Kaidoh growled. But there was a relieved look in his eyes.

Sayaka shook out her short black hair. "Took me a while, but I think I got used to the power," she said. At least she wasn't scared anymore. '_If I returned one shot, it means I can return more._' She turned to her opponents. "Let's give it to them, you sparrow."

Suzume had to resist the urge to snort. "Heh. You had me worried there for a sec. Screw you, Namazu-chan."

**~X~**

"Looks like you've met your match in acrobatics, Gakuto…" Oshitari mused thoughtfully, after seeing Sayaka's impressive move.

The short, red-violet haired tennis player scoffed. "What are you talking about? It was only an aerial somersault. _Anyone _can do it."

The crowd suddenly gasped as Sayaka threw her racket at least twenty feet into the air.

"What—why?" Choutarou choked on his drink. "Is she giving _up_?"

They watched in shocked silence as she twisted through the air in an elaborate spiral. The racket was spinning as it plummeted back to earth. She reached out both her hands, catching it perfectly, just in time to whack a powerful backhand shot straight to the left corner.

The shot bounced and missed Gamaro's racket by a centimeter.

Sayaka landed to cheers. (Mostly from the Seigaku team, but there were some Hyotei students clapping in awe as well.) She grinned and did a victory sign at her audience.

"C-can anyone do _that_?" Choutarou stammered.

Mukahi swallowed his pride. "Fine! She's a _little_ better…"

"Being able to return Omae's forehand is impressive," one of the other girls said.

"And being able to return it while doing all those tricks is even more so," another one added. "She's a _lot_ better than you, Mukahi." The red headed Hyotei member just scowled.

Fuuma noticed the way Sayaka's wrists were trembling and didn't say anything.

Shishido kept his eyes on her. "It can't be helped. That's the difference when you've had professional training."

Mukahi turned to look at his teammate. "You know an awful lot about her, Shishido. What, do you have a thing for her or something?"

"What are you talking about!"

"Ooh, defensive," Fuuma murmured mischievously, pulling out an old issue of the school magazine. She perused it briefly. "It says here that Shishido Ryou likes the tomboyish type…"

"_You_ printed that!" His hand grabbed for it. "Gimme that, you—" He lunged as she lifted it out of reach.

Shigohara tilted her head and continued to watch the game, choosing to focus her eyes on the more important matter in front of her. She watched as Sayaka flew upwards into a corkscrew before landing, catching her racket, and taking another point. "She's not bad to look at."

"She has nice legs," Oshitari noticed.

"She's got Omae and Gamaro backed into a corner," Atobe mentioned, his face a mask of seriousness. "Seigaku is going to take back the lead."

"Not yet," Hiyoshi suddenly spoke up, and all of them looked at him in surprise. His eyes were glowing. "Not yet. Gamaro still has _that._"

**~X~**

"Game, Seigaku! One game to three!"

After the referee announced the score, they hi-fived with their rackets. "Looks like I still got it!" Sayaka proclaimed cheerfully.

"_Barely,_" Suzume retorted.

"Psh, details, details!" She waved it away with a laugh.

The red-haired girl felt a genuine smile surface. "You really don't let anything bother you for long, do you?" she murmured. She envied that.

Sayaka didn't hear her. "Huh?"

"Nothing," She glanced at the other side, and saw Atobe and a brown-haired kid talking to their opponents. They looked too calm. "Hey, we can't get cocky though," she said, her tone solemn. "I get the feeling that something is coming."

"We're two games behind! There's no way I'm getting cocky," Sayaka discreetly massaged her wrists.

"Good," Suzume told her.

Sayaka couldn't resist a wicked grin. "But you know what? I think we could take 'em."

**~X~**

"Hey, Momo…" Oishi said. "Have you ever seen Sayaka-san do a two-handed forehand before?"

"No. What?" Momoshiro turned his head back to the game. His sister did a triple flip, landed on her feet and swung with _both_ her hands. "She usually has a one-handed forehand _and_ one handed backhand. That's weird."

"It may be to give her shots more vicissitude…" Reina said lightly. "As the conglomerati-Ahem," she coughed as Akane kicked her. "She might want more acut-uh, variety in her shots."

Sayaka shot towards the sky in a double somersault, landed in a full twisting handspring, and hit a drive volley. "Really," Akane said dryly. "Variety? Somehow I doubt that."

**~X~**

Her wrists were starting to really bother her. It was more than a twinge of pain now; they felt like she had stuck them in an ice furnace. She smiled internally at her use of an oxymoron to describe the pain, but it was accurate. They were becoming numb with pain. Using two-handed shots were alleviating the pain a little, but it was messing up her accuracy too. The game was tied at three, which means she would have to hold out for at least three more games. _'I can't worry about that right now._' _Her_ eyes snapped back to focus on the ball; it was coming in a half-lob. She did an aerial forward and brought her racket down hard, trying not to flinch.

Gamaro caught the ball and swung it back, right behind where Sayaka landed. Her landing problem was almost gone, but even so, her balance faltered as she tried to step backwards quickly. She wasn't fast enough, and the ball got away.

From the back, Suzume rammed her racket into the ball, scoring a point. She looked at her partner and gave a small nod. "I got your back too."

Sayaka gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks."

"You know, they aren't really like Momo and Kaidoh," Kikumaru suddenly declared as a new rally began.

The two second years both spun at the sound of their name. "What?"

"Kimura-chan and Sayaka-chan!" Kikumaru clarified. "They reminded us of you two when they first joined, because they argued a lot. But they actually like each other. Sort of."

Inui pulled out an old notebook and flipped to the middle. "Personality-wise, Sayaka-san is a lot more easygoing than Momoshiro is."

"You have our _personality traits_ in there?"

"She's breezy," Akane said.

There was a pause. "I like that," Inui decided, writing it down in his notebook. "_'Breezy_'."

"On the other hand, Suzume is a lot more apathetic than Kaidoh is. So they argue, except it's mostly Suzume making snarky comments and Sayaka brushing them off. Suzume just adopts an 'I don't care' attitude most of the time."

"But she _does _care…" Momoshiro said.

"Yes," Chiharu smiled a serene smile. "More than you know."

**~X~**

Izumi, who had not spoken a word since the match began, suddenly said very, very quietly. "I don't like this."

Fuji was the only one who heard her. "What?"

She didn't tear her eyes from the game. "I don't like this," she repeated. "I wonder what Akane is up to."

**~X~**

Sayaka's breath quickened as she ran after another shot. The momentum was all Seigaku. She needed to ride this wave out for as long as possible. A sharp pain cut through her wrists as she swung and she bit her lip in pain. '_If I even last that long…_' As the ball went to the other end of the court, she glanced quickly at her wrists. They _looked_ fine. She wondered how many people knew that they were being strained.

Reina probably knew, she thought. And if Reina knew, that creepy Hyotei girl probably knew too. Which meant that she could potentially tell the Hyotei pair to target her. Suzume hadn't seemed to notice, though. Sayaka briefly pondered on bringing it up and asking for her assistance. But at the same time, there was a strong likelihood that Suzume would just tell her to suck it up.

Just as she was thinking, her concentration jolted back to the game. Gamaro was approaching the net fast.

Instinctively, Sayaka took a few steps back. "_Christ, she's tall_…"

The looming girl took an unusually large swing and hit a backhand, the ball coming right at her.

Sayaka stood her ground, prepared her arm, and swung.

The ball shattered.

There was no other way to describe it. She swore the ball became a million yellow pieces right in front of her eyes, before materializing diagonally behind her and bouncing away.

"What. I- _What?_"

"I knew they were hiding something," Suzume cursed under her breath. "Damn Hyotei."

"Inui-senpai, did that ball just… _dissolve_?" Horio asked, his mind blown.

"It's an illusion," Tezuka said.

"Tezuka's right," Inui confirmed. "The ball's irregular movement, along with the position of the sun causes an illusion of the ball dissolving. She must've waited for the sun to come out in order to use it."

A cold sweat broke out on Sayaka's forehead. She had no idea that shot was even possible. It was nothing short of magic. How was one supposed to beat magic? She forced herself to take a breath, trying not to remind herself that her wrists were nearly at their limit.

Another rally started, and before long Gamaro was charging the next again. Suzume crouched and stood her ground, her eyes fixated on the ball. '_Let me see what you are._" With a _bang,_ Gamaro hit it, and the second year fearlessly ran to get the ball.

Except… there wasn't a ball.

Whipping her head around, she saw it recompose itself and bounce away. "Damn."

The Hyotei members were smirking. "Gamaro's Firecracker…" Oshitari said. "It's impressive as ever."

"Guess she finally pulled it out," Shigohara murmured. "Those Seigaku girls must have something…"

"Firecracker, huh…" Inui murmured as he wrote it down. "Good data…"

"Sayaka-chan is going for a return!" Chiharu exclaimed as she saw Sayaka retreat to the baseline, intent on returning the ball when it came together and bounced.

"I see! If she hits it back at the baseline instead of volleying it at the net, it'll be a whole ball!" Oishi figured out.

"Well, _that's_ not a good idea…" Fuuma cautioned with a secretive smile.

"Don't you know what firecrackers do?" Shigohara asked in a superior tone. "They…"

The ball met Sayaka's racket.

"…explode."

_BOOM!_ The next thing she knew, the impact had knocked her backwards straight into the fence. Pain seared across her back as she collided.

"Sayaka-senpai!" Sakuno cried, horrified.

"Sayaka!" Momoshiro stepped over the banister, intent to rush to her aid, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Wait," Akane said. She nodded her head towards the girl on the ground, who was already shakily getting back to her feet.

The green wires cut into the hollows of her shoulders and damn it _damn _it it hurt. She crawled to her feet unsteadily, taking her time. The referee walked over, his expression anxious. "Are you okay? Can you continue?"

"You kidding me?" Sayaka tried her best to force out a smile. "The game isn't over yet."

Coach Ryuzaki made her come over to the bench where she inspected her wounds. Aside from a few scrapes here and there, it didn't look like she was very hurt. Then again, Sumire reminded herself, the wounds that were not on the skin were the worst. "We'll have you checked out properly at the hospital later."

"Aww, old lady, I'm fine."

"Hush you," Sumire smacked her on the side of her head affectionately. "And I see you've taken after your brother's bad habits. I'm not _that_ old, you know."

"You're doing well, Sayaka-chan! Really acrobatic out there!" Kikumaru said encouragingly.

"I'm proud of you, sis," Momoshiro said.

Even Ryoma offered her a smile. "Nice, Sayaka-senpai."

"Sayaka."

She turned around to face Kaidoh, surprised by the use of her given name. "What's up?"

He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. Then he growled "Don't die," and walked off.

She laughed. "I'll try not to. Or if I do, I'll bring Hyotei down with me."

Suzume kept a concerned eye on her partner. She looked fine – mostly just shocked from that shot. It was probably partially due to her low body weight that it blew her back by so much. Suddenly something made Suzume sharpen her gaze and frown.

Sayaka was rubbing her wrists behind her back.

The rest of the team couldn't see, but she had her back to Suzume. The second year's eye zeroed in on her partner's wrists. They appeared to be swelling a little, and she could see a faint redness from below the skin. Her medical knowledge told her that they were both sprained. '_How long has she endured that?_'

"Ready Kimura?" Sayaka was saying as she walked back. "We're gonna—" She was suddenly cut off as Suzume took a hold of one of her wrists. She almost managed to keep a neutral expression, but a tiny cringe escaped her.

"You need to tell me these things," she said quietly.

Sayaka pulled her wrist away defensively. "I thought you'd just tell me to suck it up."

Suzume didn't say anything and walked back to her position. '_Stupid catfish,_' she thought. She briefly flashbacked to her first match with Sayaka. The latter was also sacrificing her wrist for that game. '_Stupid catfish and her stupid determination_,' If Sayaka hadn't been showing off so much earlier, she probably could've put less strain on her wrist. '_But no, she had to go off and do all those crazy stunts. Damn show off. She's gonna get herself killed or something._' Her gaze traveled over to Hyotei. She didn't like the glint that was in Gamaro's eye. '_Oh great. She knows. Now she's going to target her weakness. I hate people who do that._' Of course, she was one of those people too.

Sure enough, after a couple rallies, Gamaro ruthlessly sent another Firecracker on a path straight at Sayaka.

Sayaka braced herself.

"MOVE." Suzume lunged forward and shoved Sayaka out of the way. The ball hit her racket with a devastating force. She gritted her teeth at the blow. _'Fuck, that's heavy._' It felt like she was trying to stop a bus. She dug her heels into the ground and pushed.

The ball flew over the fence.

"Oh?" Atobe remarked amusedly. "I didn't think there was a girl who could return Gamaro's Firecracker."

"I wouldn't call that a return, Atobe…" Shigohara said.

"No, but at the rate she's going, she'll be able return it. That's someone to keep your eye on. Right, Kabaji?"

"Usu," the second year loyally responded.

Suzume was panting slightly from the effort. It actually didn't hurt much, despite how her arm was twitching. Maybe there was too much adrenaline in her veins for her to feel pain.

"Hey."

She ignored her. '_You're the dumbest person in the world for thinking you could take another one of those._'

"Hey! Listen," Sayaka lowered her voice. "I need your help."

She bit back a laugh. "You think?"

"Shut up. I have an idea."

**~X~**

"They're up to something…" Kikumaru said.

The other regulars observed the game but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Sayaka was still running at the net, and Suzume was guarding the back again. It looked lie a regular doubles formation. "Why do you say that, Eiji-senpai?" Momoshiro asked. "Haven't they been doing this the whole time?"

"Sayaka looks different," Kikumaru tried to explain. "It looks like she's getting ready for something."

"Why don't you hit your Firecracker at me?" Suzume taunted as she hit the ball straight back at Gamaro. "You scared to see it actually returned?"

"Don't listen to her," Omae warned, volleying it back. "It's a trick."

'_I know,_' Gamaro smiled privately. '_Besides,_' Her narrowed eyes locked onto Sayaka instead. '_You aren't my target._'

When the ball came back to her, Gamaro saw her chance. She lifted her arm back and readied her racket.

At that moment, Omae saw a tiny grin surface on Sayaka's face. "Kyo-chan, wait!" she cried to her partner in horror.

"Too late!" Gamaro hit the ball with enough strength to crush metal.

"Sayaka-senpai, watch out!" Sakuno shrieked from the sidelines.

Sayaka's grin grew. Almost in slow motion, she threw herself into a back flip to dodge it, her back arching beautifully. Out of nowhere, Suzume appeared, dashing out from _under_ her, straight at Gamaro's shot.

"That's what Ryuzaki did during the Fudomine match!" Kachiro said excitedly. "Drive S!"

She spun her racket into a reverse grip.

"Oi!" Momoshiro said. "Is she going to…"

"Hya!" she shouted, and punched forward with all her might just as the ball began to dissolve. The moment her racket met the ball, there was a huge '_BANG!' _It felt like something imploded. The enormous strength of the shot was accompanied with a hot gust of wind, almost blowing her backwards.

"I've _never_ seen someone attack Gamaro's Firecracker head on!" Shigohara rose to her feet.

The ball was spinning against her racket furiously, trying to break through. There was a giant pressure on her arm. '_COME ON. COME ON._' Suzume pretended that there was a wall behind her, supporting her so that the ball couldn't push her back any farther. Suddenly, something that resembled a cannonball blasted from her racket. The ball hit the ground, sending tremors all around, and bounced far over the fence and out of sight.

There was a circular black scorch mark on where the ball landed.

The courts became dead quiet.

"L-Love-Fifteen!" Even the referee stuttered.

Tezuka nodded with appreciation.

"That was…" Momoshiro shook his head, swallowing. "She's crazy. The sparrow is crazy."

"I can't believe she took it directly," Kawamura said. "Even I wouldn't be sure about doing that."

"_I _can't believe that they swapped positions using acrobatics!" Kikumaru announced. "Sayaka really needs to teach me Drive S."

Suzume was breathing hard. She half expected her racket to be on fire after that shot. Wiping her forehead with her shirt, she summoned the strength to smirk at their opponents. "Told you I'd return it."

Gamaro served the ball furiously. "That was a lucky shot," she told herself unconvincingly. "There isn't a high school girl out there that can return your Firecracker. Aside from Shigohara, but that's because she's a beast."

The return came back to her. She was just about to hit a forehand before Omae ran in front and intercepted the shot.

"Oi! What the hell, Omae?"

"They want your Firecracker, Kyo-chan," Omae panted, grasping her racket. "Then they'll get it!"

Gamaro looked over and saw that they had switched places again. The red-haired punk girl was no doubt the stronger of the two. Not only that, but the other girl's wrists should be past the limit now. '_The other one can't take it._'

Omae saw an opening. "Now!" she screamed. "Do it now!"

"She can still hit it?" Katsuo asked.

"How much power does this girl have?" Momoshiro said disbelievingly.

"Is she a _monster_?" Horio yelped.

Gamaro pulled her racket back and hit the ball with a fire of passion.

It was a straight shot to the back. "Suzume's not going to make it," Akane said, seeing how the second year was too far. It was a very well placed shot. That girl – Omae – had amazing timing. They were deliberating avoiding Suzume's head-on challenge, at the same time targeting Sayaka, in order to secure a point.

Suzume didn't even try to move. Instead, she turned her head and called to the girl behind her, "You wanted this one, right?"

"Thanks for that!" Sayaka grinned as she raced back to the baseline.

"No! Don't return it!" Oishi cried in concern. "You'll injure yourself!"

Sayaka got to the baseline but kept going back.

"She's going to hit it when it's at its least powerful…" Izumi realized. "As far back as possible." Air resistance would lessen the power, making the return more manageable. '_It would be less of a toll on her wrists…_'

"But after it bounces…" Inui pointed out. "It'll be high above her head. She won't be able to reach it." Due to the larger power in the shot, the ball was always bouncing up at a high angle and right _over _the fence. There was no way Sayaka could leap that high for a smash. Even Momoshiro and Aiko would not be able to reach it.

The ball bounced sky high.

"She'll never reach it!"

"She can't jump that high!"

Sayaka grinned. And then she tossed her racket up, all the way over the ball. Immediately after, she did a double salto forward, getting as high as she could. The Seigaku regulars could only watch, hope flaring in their eyes. Their hearts were beating in a rapid rhythm.

"She's not going to make it," Kachiro said dejectedly. Her jump only brought her halfway up to the height of the ball, which was still ascending quickly.

Suddenly, there was a _clang_ sound as Sayaka's foot met the green wire fence, causing it to quiver.

"What! She's not going to…"

Using her foot to push off, she ricocheted off the fence and upwards. She saw her goal. The racket and the ball merged as one in front of her eyes. For a moment, she felt free, the wind rushing through her ears as she soared above the earth. Then her eyes locked onto the racket. '_Let's do this._' She curled into a tight ball and somersaulted forward. At the last possible instant, she snapped open like a switchblade, plucking her racket neatly from the air, and bringing it down on the ball with every ounce of strength she had.

The ball crashed onto the court. Gamaro dove for it, but maybe she was tired from hitting those Firecrackers, or maybe it was a stroke of luck, but the ball evaded her and hit the fence, untouched.

The crowd went wild.

"That was the coolest thing ever!"

"AMAZING! Pure win!"

"Who knew Seigaku had someone like _that_?"

Even some of the Hyotei team members were applauding reluctantly.

Kachiro, Katsuo, and Horio were clutching each other and weeping. "That shot was so beautiful!"

"Sayaka's Jack knife," Momoshiro said to himself. "Not bad at all."

Sayaka felt like she was floating down to earth, as light as air. The moment she landed on her legs, it was like gravity reclaimed her, and everything got heavy instantly. Her legs buckled from the effort. She involuntarily fell on her back, chest heaving. Her arm like lead, but she lifted her fist to the sky. "Don."

Suzume could only shake her head at her, although her eye shone with an unspoken admiration.

Sayaka was wild, and reckless, and bursting with talent. She had an explosive energy and a spark in her personality. "Hmm…" Ryoma murmured. "I think we have a firecracker in our team too…"

**~X~**

"Game and match! Seigaku's Momoshiro-Kimura pair!"

It was an overwhelming feeling. Like nothing was real. Sayaka felt like crying, cheering, laughing. When you dedicated your heart and soul to a single game, coming out as a winner was the best feeling in the world. "We did it, Kimura," Her voice got louder as if she was suddenly just coming to terms with it. "We did it! We _won,_" Sayaka reached out a hand to her partner, only for her to ignore her and turn away. "Eh?"

Suzume stormed off to the bench purposefully, without a second glance, leaving her in a befuddled wake. She followed, puzzled. "What's wrong?"

The red-haired girl reached under the bench and yanked out the first aid kit like she wanted to destroy it. Clasping a hand around one of Sayaka's wrists, she dragged her over. "Namazu-chan, you are fucking _ridiculous_."

"You're wrists!" Oishi suddenly noticed, going into worry mode. He didn't even reprimand Suzume on her use of profanity.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow!" Sayaka squealed as Suzume bound her wrists with cloth, being none too gentle. "Not so hard! OW! Dammit, you sparrow!"

Suzume gave her a pointed look. There was a gleam in her eye, as if they were in on a private joke. "Suck it up."

"…Shut up." She scowled. But there was a hint of a smile on her lips.

**~X~**

"Did your plan work, Akane-san?"

Akane finished taking a long drink from the fountain and glanced up, swiping her hand across her mouth. "What plan?"

Fuji chuckled. "I may not know you as well as Watanabe-san or Oshiro-san, but I know you were up to something."

She merely looked at him.

"You knew Sayaka-san's wrists were going to be strained," he said. "You knew that she was going to have to change tactics."

"Did Izumi tell you?" Akane guessed. "She's gotten more observant. Good."

'_Izumi noticed after Sayaka started doing just aerials and aerial stunts. She stopped doing stuff that required her to use her hands for support._' "She is a choreographer after all."

"Sayaka was too much of a show-off…" Akane said. "Against a strong opponent, you can't show off all the time. It'll end up hurting you. Today, she learned how to pick her moments."

"And her wrists? What if she'd gotten seriously hurt?"

"I trusted her to figure it out before that happened. I have a lot of faith in her."

"You could've just told her that Hyotei was too strong for her to be stunting all the time…" Fuji pointed out.

"Nothing is as effective as hands-on experience. She'll remember it now, and she'll think that she came to this realization herself. Besides," Akane added. "Suzume learned how to play defense. And, more importantly," She briefly recalled how Sayaka came up with the way to combat Gamaro's shot. "How to follow orders."

Fuji stared at her incredulously before laughing. "Akane-san, you _are_ a tricky one."

"Why thank you. I'll take that as a compliment."

**~X~**

'_A young girl was running into the house. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement, and her hair was slightly mussed. In her hand, she clutched a golden trophy. She was still in her gymnastics leotard._

_"Daddy, Daddy!" she called as she ran around looking. "Guess what!"_

_Her father was watching TV in the living room with her brother. "Daddy! Look! I-"_

_Suddenly she stopped as both her brother and her dad were yelling animatedly at the television. "_Beautiful_ shot!_"

_"You see that, son?" Her father pointed at something on the screen. "Nadal is going to take Federer in the next game. Watch."_

"_No dad, I think Federer is going to get the game back. You'll see!" Suddenly they both shouted again. "Ace! He hit an ace! His serve is awesome!"_

_"Beautiful," her father repeated. "Beautiful."_

_Sayaka could never understand how a yellow ball was beautiful._

_"Oh hey sis!" Takeshi finally noticed her standing there. "What's up?"_

_"Nothing!" She hid her trophy behind her back and tried to look cheerful. "I just wanted to see where you guys were. Are we getting dinner soon?"_

_"Right after the game," her dad promised._

_She went to her room and opened the bottom drawer of her cabinet. It was filled with medals and awards, and two other trophies. She fingered the metallic colors for a moment, lost in her thoughts. Then she placed her newest trophy in and shut the drawer firmly._

Sayaka pulled out her phone to check the time and saw that she had an unread text from earlier that morning. She opened it.

'Hey Princess

Sorry I can't make it to your game today! I love you.

Dad.'

A soft, almost drained sigh escaped her. She couldn't help but think, if Seigaku beat Hyotei and won the girl's prefectural tournament… she would just have another medal to hide in her bottom drawer.

**~X~**

"Fuji-kun! Fuji-kun! It _is_ you!"

Fuji barely had time to turn before the person had grabbed both of his hands. "Can we go play a match now? Please? Pretty please?"

He chuckled uncomfortably. "I think I need to watch the next game, Akutagawa-san. But we will have a rematch sometime."

Jirou's face fell evidently. He looked like a sad puppy. Then he saw someone else and it lit up again, as if someone had pressed a button. "Is that Marui-kun? Marui-kun! It _is_ you!" He raced off, and Fuji was relieved at Jirou's sudden distraction. Then he saw where Jirou was headed. "Wait, that's—" He stopped himself. Now that Jirou's attention was diverted, it suited him just fine. Besides, this would be very amusing. He shut his mouth and leaned against the fence to watch.

"Marui-kun! Marui-kun! Yoo-hoo!"

Kimiko let out a huge yawn. She was hardly awake. She trained so late last night, she didn't even remember crawling in bed and going to sleep. As she opened her eyes, squinting in the light, she could barely make out a blurry shape dancing up and down in front of her eyes.

"I knew it was you! The one and only genius, Marui Bunta!"

"Bunta…?" she echoed hazily.

"You've grown your hair out, Jackal," Jirou said as he picked up one of Aiko's braids. "I like it. Marui-kun!" His attention was back on her. "Let's go play a match!" He suddenly stopped and looked at her properly. "Huh? Why are you in a Seigaku jersey and wearing a skirt?" He pulled at the cloth. "Is this like one of those Scottish things? You're so cool, Marui-kun!"

Kimiko opened her eyes again and stared at him. Then what he said registered in her brain.

She chucked her lollipop at him.

Hard.

It hit him in the middle of his forehead. He slumped over almost instantly.

"Uh…" Aiko wasn't sure what to do with this unconscious body in front of her. Who knew lollipops could be used as weapons too? "Can we just leave him here?" She was already carrying Kimiko on her back and would not appreciate the extra weight.

"Can we throw him in a ditch?" was her response. She was awake and fuming. She looked like devil horns were about to sprout out of her head.

Aiko made a mental note _never _to mistake Kimiko for her cousin Bunta. Not that it was possible. How this kid had managed to do it was beyond her.

"Oh dear," Another voice came. "Rie, would you look at this? It would appear Jirou's been taken."

"So it would seem…"

Kimiko looked up as two girls approached them, both in Hyotei uniforms. One of them was tall, with white-blond hair that had a streak of blue in it. Her attitude reminded her a little of Suzume.

"I don't think it was a good idea to knock our teammate out…" the girl with a blue streak said warningly. "What did he do to you?"

"He mistook me for a boy!" Kimiko said indignantly. '_And not just any boy, but Bunta!'_

The shorter girl burst into giggles. Her black curls bounced as she moved. (That was not the only thing that bounced. Let's just say Nanjirou Echizen would have a river of a nosebleed if he saw her.) The other girl – Rie? – grinned, "Yeah, that would be a good reason to knock him out."

"He mistook my partner for one too!" Kimiko added huffily.

"Oh dear!" That sent the girl with black hair into more giggles.

"I guess for that we have to wake him up and let you knock him out again," the girl with the blue streak said with a wink, her golden eyes twinkling. She kicked him lightly. "Oi, Jirou. Up you get."

There was no response.

The shorter girl bent over him to inspect him. "I don't believe this! He fell asleep again!"

She sighed. "All right, well we can't leave him here," Then the blonde-ish girl picked him up and swung him over her shoulder as if he was as light as a feather. "Let's get back to the group. We'll see you later!" She waved at them.

"Ah… okay."

'_No big deal. Because every average girl can just lift a high school boy and carry him away. Haha. Jokes._' Seeing this made Aiko somewhat apprehensive. Hyotei clearly had plenty of talent left on their team.

**~X~**

"Hey Ayumi, I'm guessing those were our opponents for the next match?"

"Hmm?" Ayumi glanced back, black curls framing her face. "I guess so. What do you think?"

Rie smiled. "You know, I'm actually looking forward to this one. It seems like it's going to be fun."

**~X~**

**END CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.**

So being Momo's little sis is a lot harder than it looks, huh?

**UP NEXT: **Aiko and Kimiko take on Hyotei's doubles one, Ayumi and Rie! Aiko finally has a technique that she's been working on, but is it enough?

I know a lot of characters were absent in this chapter and there was zero romance. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. LOL. You'll get your romance soon. I WILL be writing a Valentine's day and White day chapter, no worries.

I'm also going to be putting in character facts at the end of every chapter.

**Fun facts about Momoshiro Sayaka:**

_-Her favorite food is pizza._

_-When she was in middle school, people called her a giraffe because of her height. She is also self-conscious of her height and thinks her chest is too flat._

_-She has a turtle. Its name is Turtle._

_-She's the worst cook in the world. Once, her brother had to help her scrape burnt popcorn off the ceiling. Yeah, don't ask._

_-She likes her hands and thinks they're her best asset. She can also do a really good French manicure. It's probably the only girly thing about her._

If any of you are interested in following my journey after this heartbreak, I have created a tumblr called gettingoveraguy . tumblr. com (with the spaces omitted). Please follow/reblog/leave comments or whatnot. It's my first tumblr.

In the New Prince of Tennis Manga, there's this character Irie(?) that has a similar style to Akane. Just so you know, I published Akane first. Haha. (I wonder if I can copyright my ideas.)

Please check out two short stories I wrote: Faded and Spring. They're both oneshot FujiOC and (sort of)TezukaOC, both future-fic, both spin-offs of TCAFS.

Also review. Because every review is read and appreciated, and they really make me happy. (and happy me likes to write. Just so you know.)

(Edit. I realize that there is a tennis error where Suzume returns two serves in a row. I'll fix it eventually but ask that you overlook it for now.)


	25. Hermes

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**A/N: **Guess who's in Paris right now? THIS GIRL. Taking the Costa neoRomantica cruise to England, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Germany! If you are by any chance on the same cruise, come talk to me. I'm as tall as Momoshiro and I have hair like Ryoma. So basically, I'm Sayaka. Weird.

Fast update, right? I have decided that I am going to make a solid effort to update more often.

Also, TCAFS has over 101, 000 hits! So, THANK YOU ALL.

Special dedications EVERYONE because you're all wonderful.

To recap: Last chapter, Sayaka and Suzume took down Hyotei's doubles two. Now it's doubles one's turn.

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter Twenty-Five: Hermes**

**~X~**

_Yo, Komboi!_

_How's it going in the country of the Red Sun Rising in the East?_

_We had a meet with West Essex High today. They crushed us completely. We needed you, girl! Instead, Mara was the anchor for the relay. Trust me, that girl could not sprint if there was a tiger behind her._

_Tennis season doesn't start till spring over here, so it's weird to hear you talk about it in your emails already. I'm probably not going to try out for the team this year; but when you come back, let me know and we can hit a few balls! Although you'll probably be so much better than me by then, haha._

_Good luck in your tournament! Or ganbatte, as I should say, right?_

_-J Mo_

**~X~**

"All right, hospital time," Coach Ryuzaki announced as she got up from the coach's bench, brushing herself off.

"I'm fine…" Sayaka insisted, holding up her two bandaged hands. "They don't even hurt that much anymore."

"No, you're going and that's final. You really outdid yourself with that crazy somersaulting smash at the end," The coach shook her head, exasperated. "What were you thinking?"

"Uh… I wasn't?" Sayaka offered sheepishly.

"Evidently."

"I thought it was super cool, hehe!" Kikumaru said, poking her. "Sayaka's Jack Knife!"

"Except it's not a Jack Knife at all…" Inui pointed out. "It's a smash. She only called it 'jack knife' because she _looks_ like one when she's snapping open in midair."

"Well, Oishi's moon volley is not a volley either!" Kikumaru said huffily.

"Yeah, Inui-senpai," Sayaka ganged up on him. "Why do you have to be so technical?"

Inui fidgeted awkwardly. "That is… for the data… Ah…"

"All right, that's enough. We're leaving. We'll be fine," she added, seeing Suzume and Oishi both intending to follow. "Stay and watch."

"But I want to watch the next game too…" Sayaka grumbled.

"That's not your decision. Now then," Coach Ryuzaki turned to survey the team, her hands on her hips. "Who wants to be bench coach?"

"If it's all right with everyone else…" Akane said before they could speak. "Can Reina do it?"

"Eh?" Everyone looked surprised, including Reina.

"Is that okay?" Akane repeated, this time mainly at Tezuka.

He gave her a nod, albeit slightly quizzically.

"Akane," Reina pulled her aside. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

Akane's expression was unreadable as she responded simply, "Giving you a front seat to the show."

**~X~**

"So what do you think of that pair, Inui?" Oishi asked.

Inui skimmed through his calculations. "Hmm… Narita and Matoko," he murmured. "Narita's a master of control. Her precision is dead on. It could be trouble for Komboi-san," He glanced at the black haired girl. "With a ball machine, she can hit fifty balls to the exact same spot without missing."

"Narita's the shorter one, right?" Akane clarified.

"Right," Inui told her. "Although she prefers to go by her first name, Ayumi."

"She's pretty," Kikumaru said dreamily.

'_She is…_' Sakuno thought. Ayumi wasn't beautiful like Reina. Reina was that kind of icy beauty, the kind that made you feel a little intimidated. Ayumi was more I'm-just-pretty, with her sunny smile and slightly curled tresses and sweet laughter. She was prettier in an easier way, if that made any sense at all. Kind of like Tachibana's little sister – the girl who helped her out when she was lost. Plus on top of that, she had all those womanly curves. Sakuno watched as Ayumi gave the tall blunette a quick hug before bouncing back to her partner, and wondered if she could ever be so captivating.

"Yeah, she's attractive, I guess," Akane put in.

"Pulchritudinous," Reina agreed, because only Reina would know a five-syllable word for 'pretty'. Akane kicked and told her to get on the bench.

"She has big boobs," Kimiko pointed out cheerfully. "Boing boing!"

"….…." was the general reaction.

Oishi turned bright red. Kikumaru had the shame to look down. Kaidoh froze completely. The rest of the girls and the guys tried to act like they didn't hear, but their skin couldn't hide the blushes that were creeping up and betraying them. Akane resisted the urge to massage her temples.

Aiko hit Kimiko lightly on the head with the frame of her racket. "What?" Kimiko whined. "I'm just saying what everyone is thinking."

"Yeah Kims? There was a _reason_ why they were thinking it and not saying it."

"Well, she's an opera singer in Hyotei's music department…" Inui offered awkwardly. There were to spots of bright pink on his cheeks. "So… I guess…"

"Inui-senpai?" Momoshiro interrupted hastily. "You don't have to explain _everything._"

"Don't those get in the way?" Sayaka asked Akane directly. The ginger headed captain gave her a sharp glance that said, '_why are you asking me_,' but Sayaka just responded by leveling a pointed look at Akane's not unimpressive cleavage.

"Yeah, Buchou has big boobs too!" Kimiko declared enthusiastically, much to everyone else's embarrassment.

Aiko could not drag her onto the courts fast enough.

"Let's have a good game!" Ayumi stuck her hand out across the net.

"You too, big boobs!" Kimiko said, taking her hand happily.

This time, Aiko gave her a harder whack on the back of her head.

"Ow," She glared indignantly. "_What_?"

Ayumi laughed at the exchange. "Don't worry about it. I get that a lot. Smooth or rough?"

It landed on smooth, and Seigaku won the first serve. Aiko took her position. '_All right, two months of weight lifting. Let's show 'em what I got._' She tossed her head back, threw the ball to the sky, and swung.

_POW_.

'_That serve…!_' Rie's eyes were wide.

The ball cut straight to the edge of the service line. It hit the ground with a tremendous force that resonated through the court, a no touch ace.

"Fifteen-love!"

"Damn, Komboi-senpai's serve is powerful too!" Momoshiro said.

"I didn't know she could serve like that," Suzume said, moderately impressed.

"That… she didn't have that when she played me," Chiharu breathed. "That's… amazing."

Kawamura smiled. '_She worked hard for that…_'

Kimiko grinned. "There's plenty more where that came from! Ne, Aiko-senpai?

Aiko served again. _POW._

However, Ayumi had already interpreted the path. She sped into place and hit a backhand, causing the ball to soar upwards.

"She can return it?" Kachiro cried. "A chance ball, but still!"

In a flash, Aiko was in the air. She smashed the ball down, pinpointing it to the left alley.

"Thirty-love!"

"Your forehand might be even more powerful than Omae's," Ayumi said, wiggling her fingers and shaking them out. "Phew, I still can't feel my fingers!"

"Thanks." '_But you managed to hit it already…_' Aiko tossed up the ball again and brought her racket down on it hard. _POW_.

In a blur of white and grey, Rie was in front of the ball.

"What? Where did she come from?" Kimiko blurted.

She struck the ball, a lightening fast cross shot to the left. Kimiko was completely unable to react. Her heart jumped into her throat.

"Thirty-fifteen!"

"Return ace?" Horio gasped. The tables were turning and it hadn't even been five minutes yet.

"They're very observant…" Inui noted.

"Ah," Tezuka agreed. "Matoko watched her partner return that second serve. She could estimate the power in Komboi's serve just by watching her partner's reaction to it."

"Now that's a true doubles pair," Oishi commented. "If you are able to do that."

"I can do it!" Kikumaru guaranteed him with a wink.

Aiko served again, this time to the right. The black haired Hyotei player caught up and hit the ball, and this time the return did not arc at all. It jetted by in a straight shot, slicing the open court cleanly in two.

"Thirty-all!"

"Fuu… Looks like I got the hang of it!" Ayumi said, smiling and looking very pleased with herself.

Kimiko and Aiko exchanged a loaded glance. '_They're strong…_'

"She got the hang of it after returning one ball?" Momoshiro asked. "Hyotei is just full of crazies."

"Ah," Akane agreed, her eyes narrowed. '_To be able to adjust to your opponents power in a second…_' She let her eyes rest on the back of Reina's head. '_That's what you're best at, Reina._'

Reina was clicking and pushing the lead back into her mechanical pencil; a habit when she's nervous or thinking.

'_I didn't work this hard on a serve to get it returned so easily!_' Aiko threw the ball up again, hitting it extra vigorously. POW.

Rie caught up in a second and struck a return to the left, the opposite direction that Kimiko jumped in.

"So fast!" Kikumaru exclaimed.

"Oh no you don't!" Kimiko pivoted on her foot and lunged for it, flicking her wrist upwards to catch it.

It just made it over the net.

"Forty-thirty!"

The Seigaku spectators exhaled. This first game was quite a battle. "Neither team is giving in, huh…" Oishi murmured, watching as the struggle continued, leading the score to become a deuce. The advantage shifted back and forth between the two schools several times. Aiko and Kimiko were refusing to give in an inch, and the Hyotei pair just kept pushing. Finally, Kimiko hit a strong backhand into the top of the net, strong enough to carry the ball over to the other side, and took the first game.

"Game, Seigaku! One game to love!"

Kimiko turned to her partner, vaguely out of breath, her eyebrows pinched with frustration. "Why was that. So. Hard."

Aiko voiced what she already knew. "Because they're good, Kims. They're really good."

**~X~**

While the Seigaku pair managed to hold serve with great difficulty, the Hyotei pair also stood their ground.

Ayumi had a decent serve with a topspin, tricky when hit to the sides of the service box. But it only managed to pass Aiko once. Against that slightly-above-average serve, the Seigaku pair should've been able to break their service game.

But Rie. _Rie._ That girl could run.

Every ball. Every ball that Aiko smashed, every drop shot that Kimiko performed, no matter where it was on the court, Rie would appear. Sometimes out of nowhere, just poof, and she was right in front of the ball again.

"Game, Hyotei! One game all!"

Aiko lifted her sleeve to her face to rub off some of her sweat, panting slightly. As she lowered the sleeve from her eyes, they landed on the girl with white-blond hair. She recalled how earlier, the girl had bent down, put Jirou over her shoulder, and stood right back up with no problem.

'_She was using her leg muscles,_' Aiko realized. '_Using her leg muscles to lift him._'

A quick glance at Rie's legs revealed that they were tanned and toned and very, very similar to her own. "Damn it," she murmured, smiling because this was not going to be easy. "Damn it. Another runner."

**~X~**

"This is a very tough game, huh," Akane said.

"Yeah," Kikumaru agreed. "They're all fighting after every point. It's going slow, and Kimi-chan is running out of stamina."

"It's not _flowing_…" Izumi mentioned softly. The momentum of the game was constantly shifting back and forth in a second, giving it a choppy, jerky, _rough_ feeling, like sandpaper on sandpaper. "It's hard to play like this, because you can't fall into a comfortable pace or rhythm."

"Rhythm?" Akane teased. "I see what you did there…" Izumi gave her a tiny smile.

"Ah! Marui-senpai just hit Tsunawatari!" Kachiro exclaimed. "Look!"

The ball slid from one end of the net towards the other. Kimiko smirked. "Genius, righ—"

Rie suddenly dashed up in front of her, causing her to choke on her words. She hit a powerful forehand volley to the empty space behind Kimiko.

"Game, Hyotei! Two games to one!"

"Not genius enough, it seems," Ayumi commented, and Rie gave her a grin.

She clenched her fist around her racket. '_DAMN it._'

**~X~**

"What?" Reina asked when they both looked at her expectantly during the change over. "I-uh…" She coughed, trying to phrase this in the easiest way for Aiko. "I can't give you guys anything yet."

"It's been three games! We're dying out there! Reina-senpai~!" Kimiko complained, panting hard.

That was partially true, Aiko thought. Kimiko was already being drained of stamina. That long deuce in the first game did not help, and neither did those passing shots that she lunged for in the last few rallies.

"I knew that they would know how to combat Tsunawatari…" Kimiko said. "But give us something, senpai. _Anything._"

"I don't know…" Reina shifted. "I don't even know what I'm doing here. Akane just—"

"Akane-buchou never does anything without a reason," Kimiko said, turning her eyes back to the stands where her former captain was. Their gaze met, and suddenly it seemed like there were only two people in the court area, her and her former doubles partner.

She looked into those piercing turquoise eyes.

'_What are you thinking, Akane-buchou?_'

Akane wanted Reina on the bench for a reason, Kimiko knew. It wasn't just for Reina to get a good view of the match and draw more sketches. Reina had something that they needed in this match. As she stared at the ginger headed girl, Akane gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

'_You wants us to play like Reina-senpai…_'

"What would you do?" Kimiko asked, turning around all of a sudden, her eyes locating the third year. "Reina-senpai, what would you do?"

For a moment she was silent, and all that was heard was the clicking of her pencil as she stared into the distance. Then all at once, it was like she was a different person. Her back was straight, and her eyes were fierce.

"Aiko, take seventy percent of the shots. Alter between spins, and hit left and right. Don't attempt any winners. You want to drag out this next game."

She nodded. Dragging out games was something she could do. '_But…_' She turned to look at her partner, who was visibly sweating and breathing hard.

"Kimiko, you need to stay at the net," Reina continued.

"Duh," was her response. She wiped a towel across her forehead. "It's not like I can play anywhere else."

"Listen. Stay at the net, keep an eye on your opponents. Take some volleys if you can, but don't hit anything special." Reina fixed her dark eyes on hers, cool and calculating. "You need to find their weakness and exploit it."

"Arg, really?" She ran a hand through her magenta bangs, brushing them out of her eyes. "Akane-buchou was always better at that stuff."

'_She doesn't realize her own strength…_'

"Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah," Aiko said, and Kimiko gave her a victory sign. "We can do it!"

As they walked away to change courts, Reina called out, "Oh, and Kimiko? Try to find their weakness _fast_."

"Hmm?"

"Because they'll be doing the same thing."

**~X~**

"What is Seigaku's pair doing?" Shishido asked. "It doesn't even look like they're trying anymore."

"That pink-haired second year is just standing at the net," Choutarou said. "She's not even trying to get balls." Aiko was running back and forth, hitting balls to various points on the opposite court, whereas Kimiko was being… stationary.

"This Marui-kun isn't as cool as the other one…" Jirou mumbled, yawning. "I'm sleepy…"

"She's observing Ayumi and Rie," Fuuma said. "They're trying to find a weakness."

"That's funny," Shigohara shook her head.

"You don't think they'll find one?" Oshitari asked lightly.

"Oh, they'll find some. They just won't be able to do anything with them."

**~X~**

"Aiko-senpai, hit it to her left!"

The dark-skinned girl ran up, glancing at the other side of the court. '_Got it.'_ She slammed her racket into the ball, a cross shot to Ayumi's left.

"Game, Seigaku! Three games all!"

"Good call, Kims," Aiko turned to her with a smile, but Kimiko was frowning. "What's wrong?"

Kimiko blinked her lavender eyes. "Something's wrong…" she muttered. From what she could tell, Ayumi and Rie didn't _have_ weaknesses. Or to phrase it better, they were extremely balanced players. They had no strong side, and no weak side. Everything was on the same level.

But at the same time, Ayumi should've been able to return that cross shot to her left. If she'd actually sprinted for it, it wouldn't have been a problem.

'_Think, Kimiko, THINK,_' she willed herself. '_Everyone has a weak point. Akane-buchou favors her right side. Izumi-senpai has a weaker backhand. Sayaka-chan has wrist problems. There's got to be something._'

The next game began, and Kimiko kept her eyes trained onto the two girls opposite. Strengths and weaknesses often went hand in hand. Suddenly something occurred to her.

'_If there strengths haven't come into play yet… then maybe their weaknesses haven't either._'

"_Damn_ it," she said aloud, knowing she was right. She jumped in front of the ball's path to hit a volley. "You've been doing this on purpose!"

"Doing what?" Ayumi asked with a knowing smile, before whipping her arm back to hit a stunning forehand, straight into the corner. It landed right on the line, and not a millimeter out.

Hyotei's crowd broke into cheers.

"Game, Hyotei! Four games to three!"

Kimiko pointed an accusing finger. "You've been dragging the game out since the beginning! You guys—" She paused to catch her breath for a moment. "You haven't been playing to your real strengths!"

Rie raised an eyebrow in a _tell-me-what-else-is-new_ manner.

"You've been trying to stop the momentum from the beginning! You-_hey_!"

The two Hyotei girls turned away from her. As they walked off, their steps falling into a pattern, she heard Rie say, "Guess she's smarter than we thought."

"I hate you people!" Kimiko stamped her foot, her hands balled into fists. She hated mind games. She swung her racket angrily a couple times, hearing it _swoosh_ through the air. "I _hate_ this."

Suddenly, she felt the concerned tap of a racket on the back of her head, stopping her mini-tantrum.

"I'm fine. I'm _fine. _I-," She broke off. "Aiko-senpai…"

"It's okay, Kims." The look in Aiko's eyes was ferocious. "It's about time we got serious, anyways."

**~X~**

"That was a beautiful shot…" Izumi said, referring to Ayumi's forehand. Who knew that Hyotei had someone like that? To be able to hit a shot with that much accuracy took a lot of skill and a lot of practice.

"They tried to break Marui-san…" Inui jotted some notes down, his pencil dancing on the paper. "That's interesting…"

"'_Break'_?" Kikumaru echoed fearfully. "That doesn't sound good."

"Aa. They put pressure on her mind by hiding their skill until now. They tried to crush her confidence."

"She's upset," Chiharu said softly.

"But she won't break," Inui said confidently.

The freshmen trio turned around. "Eh? Why?"

Inui pushed up his glasses. "Have you forgotten who Kimiko's former doubles partner was?'

**~X~**

"So what are you hiding?"

They were in the midst of passing Hyotei's stands to switch sides. Aiko and Kimiko stopped when they heard his voice, simultaneously glancing towards him.

Oshitari said it again. "We knew that she was Rikkai's Marui's cousin, so her techniques were pretty much the same. But what are _you_ hiding?"

"What?" Aiko responded blankly.

Oshitari sweatdropped. "You can't understand me? Geez…"

"It's not her fault! You have a friggin' dialect!" Kimiko said hotly. "Plus, you talk like you just swallowed a pillow, so—"

"Neh," Shigohara enunciated clearly, dragging out the words in an almost, but not quite, patronizing tone. "You're hiding something. Why don't you show us what it is?"

Aiko felt a hot flash of anger, but replied coolly. "Why don't you make me?" Something gleamed in Shigohara's eyes then, something like a mixture of anticipation and respect. It was strange, really, this conversation that they were having.

"_Why don't you make me_?"One of the Hyotei spectators mimicked, exaggerating her accent, and suddenly she felt like she was doused with cold water. She forced herself to pretend like she didn't hear.

"That's not nice!" Kimiko turned onto the boy who was making fun of her.

"Let it go, Kims," she said, and already starting heading for the court.

"Che…" She reluctantly plodded after her. "Ne, Aiko-senpai, you're really strong, you know? I don't think I could just walk away from that kind of thing…"

"Right," Aiko let out a short bark of laughter. "Strong. That's it."

'_You have no idea._'

**~X~**

No one knew. At night, no one knew how she would stare at her reflection in her mirror, staring at the cheekbones that were too high to be Asian and the nose that was too pointed to be African; how the tears fell from her not-quite-almond shaped eyes, tracing their way down her skin that was all too dark and not dark enough.

No one knew how every time her father called, how difficult it was to hide the quaver in her voice and the tremble in her lips. How every time it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him how hard it was, to beg him to come to Japan and take her back to New York. Back to the lattes and sandwiches at her favorite coffee shop, back to the gunshots from the starting guns at the races, back to the yells of her friends on the track and in the locker room.

No one knew, because no one asked.

They all thought that she was the tough girl. The girl where actions spoke louder than words, the girl that would rather speak with her racket than with her mouth. Maybe she was, but maybe she wouldn't be so hesitant to speak if people would stop _laughing_ at her every time she opened her mouth. Teachers were taking pity on her in class. They never called on her to read aloud, never called on her to answer a question. Once, she made the mistake of raising her hand in class to ask something, only to have the teacher not understand her question. No one bothered to help; they all just stared at her like she was some kind of _freak_. It was mortifying. Needless to say, she never made this mistake again.

Inevitably, she had to speak in the classroom once in a while. And a lot of the time, her classmates would repeat her words behind her back, mimicking her accent just loudly enough for her to hear, finding it oh-so-funny. '_I know what my accent sounds like. I don't need you to tell me_.' No one really tried to make friends with her. Conversing with her was just too much effort.

"_Henshuu"_, they called her. _("Mutt."_)

More than once, Oishi had stepped in and said, "Please, that's enough," in that peacemaking tone of his. There was even one time where Ryoma heard something, presumably about her, and responded coolly with something so insulting that it caused the third year in question to jump to his feet. When she was having trouble communicating with someone at the restaurant, Kawamura would immediately come to her side to help. And for those gestures, she was grateful. It wasn't like she didn't have friends.

But still. They didn't know. They couldn't be with her twenty-four seven. They didn't know how _hard_ it was, when their backs were turned, when she was drowning in this language that was too complicated and too intricate, when all she could do was keep her head down. They didn't know. And they would never understand.

**~X~**

The game got serious fast.

('_Fast_' was an accurate word, considering the way Rie was moving across the court.)

She made tearing across the court seem effortless. In fact, she seemed to glide along the concrete smoothly, as if the bottoms of her shoes had wheels.

Kimiko had no choice but to bring out _Techuu Ate_ as well, hitting the ball against the metal pole at the side of the net. It bounced off with a satisfying _clinging_ nose, irregularly falling towards the ground, and for a second they thought that she got the point.

Well, it only took Rie a second to sprint from the baseline to the front. She hit a sharp volley deep into the court, stealing the next game from the Seigaku pair.

"Game, Hyotei! Five games to three!"

Kimiko's legs were rubbery, and she had to sit on the ground for a second. Sweat dripped from her forehead onto the court as she desperately tried to steady her breathing. '_Matoko Rie…_' she thought, trying to take in slow breaths, while looking at the blonde girl from Hyotei. That girl had been hiding a lot of her skill in the first few games; it turned out she could be even speedier. Something about the way she moved… like her feet were barely touching the ground. She _flew_ across the court.

But that wasn't all. That girl, Kimiko knew, was also very observant. She reacted fast as well, which made her seem all the more quicker.

"Marui's at her limit," Tezuka commented.

"Ne, why didn't she hit that roll-over-the-net shot?" Kachiro asked. "Chouseki or something?"

"My guess is that there hasn't been an opportunity yet," Kawamura said. "To hit a ball with that much spin takes energy. When I need to hit Hadokyuu, I want to make sure that it won't be wasted."

"Who is that blonde girl?" Tomoka asked, pointing a finger at Rie. "She's not even out of breath and she's been running from the beginning!"

"Matoko Rie," Inui read from his trusty notebook. "She used to run for the track team in Hyotei, which won Nationals two years ago. Apparently Shishido was the one who scouted her for the tennis team."

"Shishido did?" Oishi asked. "Then it's no wonder she's fast. If Hyotei's own _dash specialist_ scouted her…"

"Her event was the 100 meter dash," Inui continued, taking out a pencil. "She could run it in thirteen seconds flat. Seeing as half a tennis court is 11.86 meters, and her average speed would be 7.69 meters per second… " He was scribbling calculations as he spoke. "Then she'd be able to make it from the baseline to the net in 1.54 seconds."

"_What_?" the freshmen trio exclaimed in unison, flabbergasted.

"One point five four seconds?" Momoshiro exclaimed. "Are you _serious_?"

"S-so fast…" Sakuno stammered, a cold sweat forming on her forehead. "That's really, really fast!" '_If these are the kind of people they have in doubles… what kind of people do they have in singles?_'

"They called her…" Inui looked up from his notebook, his glasses reflecting Rie's running silhouette. "Hermes."

"Hermes?" Ryoma repeated quietly, his interest piqued.

"Seriously? The Greek god?" Horio asked.

"Aa. Hermes was the messenger for the gods," Fuji explained, his eyes open. "Legend said he had shoes with wings on them."

All of them turned their gazes back to the court where the players were resting. Seeing the way Rie tore across the concrete to return yet another volley of Kimiko's earlier, the idea of wings on her shoes wasn't too absurd.

**~X~**

"Matoko's condition is good today," Shishido commented, leaning over the banister.

"Yeah…" Fuuma agreed. Then she paused for a second, a wicked smile forming. "Come to think about it," she added casually, "Didn't you two date?"

"NO," he shot defensively, before realizing his reply was just a little too vehement. He tried to brush it off, "Che. As if I'd date that—"

"No," Taki interrupted. "Shishido was in love with that other girl on the track team, right? Matoko's friend. Atsushi? Atsuko?"

"I WAS NOT IN LOVE WITH ATSUE."

"Atsue!" Taki grasped the name like a golden thread. "That's right! That girl that could outrun him in middle school!"

"Oh, _that _girl," Shigohara said with a smirk. "The one that had her hair up in pigtails? Fuuma, didn't you print an exclusive on her in the school magazine once?"

"Volume 7," Fuuma confirmed. "Page twenty-two."

"You talking about Atsue and Shishido?" Rie called from the bench, having caught the last few snippets of the conversation. She took a sip of water. "They're cute. I believe the first words she ever said to him were, 'You run like a girl.'"

This caused half the Hyotei regulars to burst into laughter. "Oh Shishido, how could you live that down?"

"Whipped. That's called whipped."

"You lost face there, Shishido. Ne, Kabaji?

"Usu."

"Yeah, Shishido definitely likes the tomboy type of girl, what with Rie, Atsue and that Seigaku girl…"

Shishido resisted the urge to bang his head against the banister. Today was clearly not his day. "Shut _up._"

**~X~**

"Oi. Marui," Kaidoh growled from where he was standing. He was tired of this.

She just sat there, '_breathe_' –gasp- '_breathe'_, trying to return her breathing to normal. It was too much effort to lift her head, so she called out, "What?"

"Can you catch?"

The weird comment caught her attention. "_What_?" she said again, raising her head a fraction of an inch.

And not a second too late. The lollipop almost beaned her in the eye, but she managed to snatch it right in front of her face with two fingers.

Kikumaru whistled. "Wow, she has good reflexes."

Rie and Ayumi exchanged a frown.

The bandana-wearing second year glared at her. "Stop fooling around and play seriously."

She unwrapped it and stuck it in her mouth, savoring the sweet strawberry tang. A reluctant smile appeared on her face. "Heh. Guess I have to, huh." She got to her feet, a renewed energy aglow in her lavender eyes. '_Play time's over._'

**~X~**

"Oh look, Kimi-chan's up again!" Kikumaru said excitedly, watching the pink-headed girl stand up.

"Wasn't she at her limit already?" Momoshiro asked. She was still panting heavily, but she had gotten to her feet with relative ease.

Izumi shook her head, recalling their match together a few months ago. At the time, the score was three to one, and Kimiko looked like she was about to die. Then her cousin showed up out of nowhere, and the next thing she knew, Izumi was on the verge of losing. "Kimiko… she sets false limits for herself. Like barriers. It's weird, but once she hits one, all she needs is a push."

"Or a lollipop," Ryoma muttered.

"And then, voila!" Akane finished. "A whole wave of crazy potential is unlocked."

**~X~**

"Hey!" Kimiko called to the Hyotei pair, right in the middle of a rally. She waggled a finger at them. "Just so you know, we're going to beat you into the ground."

"Oh really?" Ayumi said with a complacent giggle. "Let's see it, then."

Suddenly, Kimiko had both her hands on her racket, ready to hit a forehand slice.

"Wait—" Kachiro breathed.

"—that's—" Katsuo gasped.

"The one she used against Fudomine!" they said in unison. "Chou—"

Kimiko let out a war cry, "Tidal _FORCE_!" and swung the forehand wide. The ball hit the net, the waves of spin making '_shhhh_' noises as the ball spun against it.

"Aaaand… fail," Ayumi announced smugly, already turning away.

Aiko smirked.

Suddenly, like an ocean's surf breaking over the rocks, the ball rolled right over and dropped to the ground.

"Thirty love!"

Reina made rapid notes in her sketchbook, penning down Kimiko's progress. The speed of her specialty shot had increased by a great deal.

Oh, Kimiko took so much delight in the shocked expressions on the Hyotei player's faces. She really wished she had a camera. She grinned, holding up a V sign, finally getting to say the words, "Genius, ne?"

"What the…" Ayumi turned on her partner, appalled. "How come we didn't know she had that!"

"You're asking me?" Rie said.

"Fuuma said it wasn't possible! She said that no high school girl could hit a shot with that much spin, that it was just a rumor!"

Kimiko pulled the lollipop from her mouth with a '_pop!'_ and pointed it at them. "Suck on it, Hyoteis," she couldn't resist adding immaturely.

"Hey," Rie cut in, her eyes becoming dark and stormy. "Don't get cocky, girl."

**~X~**

"Oh?" Atobe raised his eyebrows at the near impossible shot. "Seems Seigaku has a lot of interesting characters on their team, ne, Kabaj-"

"WHOA! DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT? DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?"

Atobe's eye twitched. "Jirou's awake, huh…"

"IT ROLLED UP THE NET! IT ROLLED UP THE NET!"

"Jirou, we _know._"

"THAT WAS SO COOL! MARUI-KUN 2.0 IS AMAZING!"

**~X~**

"Kims, when did you—" Aiko started.

"Hmm?" She smiled and made a victory sign next to her face, like she was posing. "Last night! I thought if Aiko-senpai has a new move, then the least I can do if make mine even better, right? Put 'er here!" She cheerfully lifted her hand to hi-five Aiko's.

When their hands met, Kimiko felt her own new callouses rub against Aiko's.

And somehow the little twinge of pain in her palms made her really, really happy.

**~X~**

"Neh… didn't Marui-senpai call the shot, '_Chouseki_' before?" Katsuo asked, slightly befuddled. "What did she call it now?"

"Tidal Force," Ryoma said with perfect pronunciation. "It means the same thing, except it's in English."

"My guess is she changed it for Komboi-san's benefit," Inui murmured.

"It does sound pretty cool though," Kawamura said. "Tidal Force…"

Aiko hit a backhand deep into the court, forcing Rie to run back to the baseline. She needed to keep her there for Kimiko's net antics to work.

"Look, there it is again!" Horio said. "Tidal Force!"

Kimiko took a breath and sliced the ball with both her hands, adding as much spin as she could. The ball hit the net again, three inches from the top, brushing against it wildly. '_Fall, fall, fall, please just fall…_' she prayed.

In a whirl of gray and white, Rie was in front, her dark eyes carrying a vengeance. Kimiko actually took a few intimidated steps back. '_So fast..._'

"Hya!" She pounded her racket into the falling ball. It shot straight to the empty left alley.

It was too far from her. Aiko sprinted and dove for it anyways and missed, getting her knees skinned for the failed effort.

"Thity – fifteen!"

"Don't challenge my speed," Rie warned, a black fire blazing in her eyes. She pointed her racket at them. "There isn't a ball I can't catch."

**~X~**

'_Challenge accepted._' Kimiko held up three fingers behind her back. She heard Aiko call "got it!" and knew that she recognized the symbol.

Aiko served, and the rally got underway.

Ayumi hit a straight shot to her left, intent on passing her, but Kimiko sidestepped quickly and caught it with her racket, tipping it over the net as gently as she could. '_come on, come on!_' The ball seemed to be stuck in slow motion as it fell, and she willed it to fall faster.

Or maybe the way Rie moved just made everything seem like it was in slow motion. The Hyotei speed star was previously at the back, and yet she sped up like a whirlwind to the net and managed to hit a drop shot back.

"And that's rally number three!" Aiko called, already jumping. She smashed the ball with pure physical force.

"Forty fifteen!"

"She's controlling her opponents…" Chiharu said, surprised. "Kimiko, that is…" That was new, she thought. When Kimiko played doubles with Akane, it was always the latter that made the plays. Even in the few games that Aiko and Kimiko played together, they assisted each other equally.

Reina felt her lips part in shock. '_When did Kimiko become the gamemaker?_ _When did she…_' The answer hit her and she smiled. '_Heh. Of course. Well played, Akane._'

"Are you trying that trick again?" Ayumi asked them. She glanced backwards at her partner, who was forced back to the baseline, parrying the ball uselessly. Every time that she tried to advance, Aiko would hit another deep shot toward her foot. "It's no use. Rie can still get the ball no matter where you hit it…"

She leaped forward to intercept. "….and I can still hit it where you can't reach!" She lassoed a powerful volley down the center, straight along the line.

"I _will_… reach it!" Kimiko vowed through clenched teeth. She forced her tired legs into motion and sprang forward, curving her wrist, making it just it time. She fell on her bottom, wincing.

Reina narrowed her eyes. Tezuka nodded once.

The ball bounced on the net twice before dropping to the other side.

Rie slid to a stop in front of the net, only a fraction of a second too late. "Che."

"Game, Seigaku! Four games to five!"

"Shiba, did you see that?" Inoue asked.

"What?" Shiba lowered her camera. "What did I miss?"

"Hyotei's Matoko, who's known for speed… and Hyotei's Narita, who's incredibly precise…" He shook his head in wonder. "Seigaku's Marui just ripped both these titles from them with just one play."

**~X~**

"You guys need to get it together," Shigohara scolded them both. "You're falling to pieces out there."

"We _know_," Ayumi bit angrily.

"If you know, then play like it," Shigohara told them, the edge in her voice jagged and sharp. The words _'Or else there will be hell to pay come Monday' _went unspoken.

"You just need to win one more game," Atobe said. "Then it's done."

"Seriously, Rie," Shishido muttered. "You suck right now."

Like a switch, the momentum changed sides as soon as the Hyotei pair stepped back on the court. Ayumi served with surgeon-scalpel precision, getting an ace past Kimiko. Rie bolted across the court, so quick Aiko could barely _see_ her, let alone return anything. In a desperate move, Kimiko hit Tidal Force again, except this one had neither the spin nor the power that the previous two did. It crept up the net at a seemingly glacial pace, and Rie appeared at the net in time to slam it to the end of the court.

"Forty Love!"

"It's match point…" Kimiko gripped her racket tightly. '_We're not giving up to till the end._'

Hyotei's enormous group of spectators started chanting her name like they were worshipping a god. "MATOKO. MATOKO. MATOKO."

"Shut up, all of you!" Tomoka shouted angrily. She stood up and bellowed "FIGHT-O, AIKO-SENPAI! KIMIKO-SENPAI!"

Kaidoh gripped the edge of the banister. '_C'mon, senpai, Marui. Show us what you got._'

"We're only one point away from losing!" Horio clutched his hair. "This is so worrying!"

"Hmm…" Inui flipped through a few pages of Aiko's data booklet thoughtfully. "I don't think we need to worry…"

Half of them turned to look at him. "Eh?" Sakuno asked, confused and very, very worried. "Why, Inui-senpai?"

"Remember how I told you that Matoko Rie specialized in the 100 meter dash?"

They all nodded.

"Then we definitely don't need to worry," He closed the book. "From what I know, Komboi specialized in _every_ event."

**~X~**

Kimiko poked Aiko. "Ne."

"What."

"Ne."

"What."

"Ne."

"_What_, Kims?"

She merely continued to press her finger to Aiko's right bicep, her eyes unfocused. Aiko was used to this. One of many of Kimiko's weird habits when she was figuring something out. While it annoyed the heck out of her, (because half the time Kimiko would come up with a conclusion that Aiko couldn't even understand), she couldn't deny that it was also oddly endearing.

Who knew? Somehow this short, pink-headed oddball had managed to worm her way into her heart.

The first time Aiko gave her a piggyback ride was when they were training together at the street tennis courts. They defeated three pairs of guys before Gyokurin's pair took them down and ended their reign. It was just as well, because Kimiko collapsed promptly after the game ended. Aiko had just said, "All right, get on, you," rather exasperatedly and hoisted her onto her back.

The weight on her shoulders was reassuring. It was a weird logic, but Aiko felt like if Kimiko had a place on her back, then she had a place in Kimiko's world too.

Kimiko's eyes cleared all of a sudden. She stopped the poking and beckoned to Aiko. The taller Seigaku player bent down so that she could whisper in her ear. When she heard what she had to say, Aiko was once again surprised.

This girl was _smart._

Sure she acted ditzy and immature and just plain _stupid_ sometimes—actually, a lot of the time—but behind that childish demeanor was an incredibly analytical and shrewd mind.

"Got it," Aiko said, readjusting her grip around the base of her racket, her heart already thumping with anticipation. "I'm ready."

'_Besides, when else am I going to use _that?'

It might be match point, but it was far from over.

**~X~**

Kimiko stumbled forward, her legs almost buckling beneath her. She summoned as much strength as she could to hit a light cord ball. It barely crossed the net, but it still did. '_Yes._'

A looming shadow appeared. '_Oh god, not you…_' Rie also hit a drop shot to return it, to Kimiko's far left.

'_I can't let them get this point off me. I can't let Aiko-senpai down.' _"No!" she yelled as she whirled in the other direction, swinging her racket blindly. It connected, causing the ball to fly up.

"It's over!" Ayumi cried, leaping up to smash the ball. She pinned it to the end of the service box.

'_Aiko-senpai worked too hard for me to lose here._ _I won't let them get this point._' Kimiko moved in a blur of magenta, unable to feel anything in her legs at this point. "No, it's not over!" She scooped her arm down, hitting the ball on its rise. "Super Rising!"

"This is the end!" Rie called, swinging her arm back. The ball shot outwards, straight at Kimiko in a harsh yellow streak.

She shrieked and ducked under the net, allowing the ball to soar over her.

"What's the matter?" Rie taunted, "Scared, are you?"

"Heh…" Kimiko caught her breath and looked up with a sly grin. "_You_ should be."

"_What_?"

"Senpai!" Kimiko turned around with a confident look in her eyes. "That's as close to the center as I could get! It's all yours!"

"Look!" Oishi suddenly stood up in shock upon seeing Aiko's form. "Is that…"

"Kawamura-senpai's…" Kaidoh stared in awe.

Aiko had her hand on the ground and her leg back in a sprinting form, like runners did in preparation. The racket was held back in her right hand, the biceps of her arm bulging. She kept her eye focused on the ball, increasing the power in her flex as it got closer and closer to her. Her feet were pressed against the ground, bent, like coiled springs.

'_Just like track, girl, just like track. Nothing new._'

The crowds were yelling. She closed her eyes for a brief second, imagining herself in New York, preparing to run the last stretch of the 4 x 100 m dash for her team. The green court in front of her suddenly morphed into a brick red track in front of her eyes.

The ball bounced. '_That's your starting gun._'

Immediately, she pushed off with both her feet, shooting forward to meet the ball like a missile.

"Let 'er rip!" Kimiko called.

_BANG._

The ball erupted from her racket in a giant column of yellow energy, blazing a path straight to the corner of the court. She landed on her hands and knees. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't even look up and see if the shot had _worked…_

Two rackets clattered onto a silent court.

The ball lodged itself into the fence.

The crowd was… dumbstruck.

"Inui-senpai…" Momoshiro broke the silence after being completely speechless "Was that…?"

"It wasn't the Hadokyuu," Inui said. "Komboi doesn't quite have Taka-san's strength, but she compensated by using her leg muscles as well."

"That was a very powerful shot," Fuji said, his eyes open. "She needed to power up for that, so Marui-san tricked her opponent into hitting one exactly down the center, where she would be waiting…"

"Lioness, for real…" Ryoma said quietly. Sakuno nodded. That move really made her look like a lioness leaping towards her prey.

To their surprise, Aiko got to her feet and walked a few steps towards the stands. She pushed her braids over her shoulder. "How didja like that, Ryoma?" she asked in English.

Ryoma smirked. "Not bad."

"Just not bad?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

A shrug. "I can do better."

She shook her head at the snooty remark, half laughing as she returned to the court. "Short-ass wonderboy."

Ryoma lowered his cap to hide the grin that was growing on his face. Aiko was, without a doubt, his favorite senpai out of all the female regulars. There were these little things about her that no one else knew.

Like how she used to refer to several of the regulars with nicknames when she didn't have their Japanese names down yet. Reina was "weird pretty girl", Chiharu became "damn miracle", Kaidoh was "hissy boy" and Fuji was "no eyes". She took extra care to avoid saying these labels out loud, but when she was conversing with Ryoma in her native tongue, they would occasionally slip out and Ryoma would have to duck to hide his laughter.

Unlike a lot of African American girls he knew back in the States, Aiko was _not _the diva type at all (not that he was generalizing, but… well, come _on_) but she unquestionably possessed a certain degree of sassiness that was so associated with her culture. It was just overshadowed and watered down in the light of the language barrier. It was really a shame, he thought.

Yes, he definitely liked her most. There was something about the way she carried herself. Watanabe-senpai had solid willpower, Sayaka-senpai pulled off pretty cool stunts, but something about the way Aiko-senpai just kept pushing and proving herself over and over…

(Besides, Watanabe-senpai was creepy. And Sayaka-senpai was loud.)

She was prideful, that went without saying. And she was determined. Almost Kaidoh-like. A sassy Kaidoh, if you will. Ryoma smiled at the images his brain conjured at this thought. (Something along the lines of Kaidoh in a dress, shaking a finger and saying "Oh HELL no, you din't.")

There was also that time when she took down that St. Rudolph girl after she crushed Sakuno, Ryoma remembered. That won his respect over more than anything else, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because he would've done the same thing.

Yeah. That was probably it.

**~X~**

There was so much adrenaline coursing through her veins that her legs felt detached. She wasn't even trying to move her legs anymore; she was just moving her arms and _willing_ herself to get from one place to the other… and somehow her legs moved on their own. '_We're not losing!_'

"Matoko and Narita are being pressured…" Oshitari said.

"But…" Shishido noticed the way Rie's lips were curved into a half smile, and the way excitement shone in her eyes. "They seem to be enjoying themselves…"

Ayumi put a shot to the baseline, so dead-on that the referee glanced at it twice before calling it in. "Take _that._"

"Hehe, your precision isn't bad," Kimiko said, hitting another one of her famous drop shots. "But the edge of a net is thinner than a line on the court!" And with that, the ball tapped onto the net, balancing there for a split second, before falling.

Rie moved so fast it seemed like she teleported, dust flying from around her shoes. Though her speed was the same, her breathing, Kimiko noticed, was becoming increasingly labored.

"Guess you're finally tired, huh?" she provoked between sharp intakes of breath.

"Speak for yourself," Rie said, hitting the ball. "How are you still standing?"

"Honestly?" –_breathebreathebreathe_— "I have no idea either." She giggled, beads of sweat falling from her hair as she ran.

"Hmph. I need to knock you into the ground once and for all."

"And you," Ayumi called to Aiko, who was sweating hard but not showing any other signs of fatigue. Even with that crazy powerful mini-Hadokyuu shot. "You're just… _inhuman._" She hit the ball down the line.

"Here's another one!" Kimiko called in warning the ball came down the center.

Aiko resumed the lunging position, lowering her torso to the ground…

"It's coming!" Ayumi shouted, alarmed, backing away.

…only to feint and hit a drop volley.

Kimiko stuck her tongue out at the two Hyotei players. "Just kidding!" She turned around and shot her partner a grin and a wink.

And Aiko was left wondering…

'_When did doubles become so fun_?'

**~X~**

Aiko missed America. She missed the lattes and sandwiches at her favorite coffee shop, she missed her friends on the track team, and she missed her dad.

But right now, on the edge of the court, as she lifted Kimiko onto her shoulders as the shorter girl lead the crowd in a "S-E-I-G-A-K-U" cheer, as she got glomped by Kikumaru and a newly bandaged Sayaka (who aeriel-ed into the court the minute she got back, much to the dismay of Coach Ryuzaki), as several other girls and guys hugged her in tangle of limbs, as she complained ("Guys, get off, I _stink_ right now")…

As Inui and Reina discussed what to call her new move, eventually settling on "Torpedo", and mumbled about physics and aerodynamic formula…

As the little freshmen boys and girls looked up to her, their eyes glimmering with tears of admiration…

As the roar of the crowds on Seigaku's side became almost deafening…

Aiko stood there, relishing in the sweet, victorious adrenaline that had yet to subside, and couldn't help but think that right now, these courts were starting to feel a little like home.

**~X~**

"Akane."

"Reina."

"You used me."

"Maybe."

"You never expected them to use the strategies I gave them."

"Kimiko needed to hone her gamemaking skills. And what better hint to give her than to seat a strategist on the bench?"

"Well, in the future, I'd appreciate it if you'd inform me when you're going to use me. I intend to charge rent."

**~X~**

Unbeknownst to both the Seigaku team and Hyotei team, other people were watching the matches as well. At the top of the stands, looking down on them, were two girls clad in black and yellow sports jerseys.

"So _that's_ Bunta-kun's cousin…" a girl with short, black and green hair pondered aloud, watching as Kimiko twirled around, accepting the congratulations of her team. "She plays exactly like him. Looks like him too."

"I don't know," said the other one, running a hand through her hair. "I've never seen Marui make the ball roll up the net, have you?"

"Looks like Seigaku's giving Hyotei a run for their money."

"Matches aren't over yet. You know as well as I do that compared to their singles, Hyotei's doubles aren't for shit. It's that pyramid thing. Weaker players are in doubles, stronger players are in singles."

"Sounds inefficient."

"Eh," she shrugged. "Works for them, I guess. Hyotei's always been a hierarchy."

"Although, can you imagine what Fukuda-buchou would _do_ to us if we lost like they did?"

"Probably kill us. And then Hayashi-fukubuchou would dig us up and resurrect us herself so she could run us until we die again."

"Still, they're doing good. Seigaku," the girl tossed her greenish bangs back and held up two dice. "Want to bet on it?"

The other girl let out a short bark of laughter. "Please. I think the only person who dares to bet against you is Yuki-chan. And Yanagi," she added as an afterthought. "Actually, and Akaya, but that's because he's dumb."

"So is the girl who beat Yoshima-chan here?"

The girl pointed at Shigohara. "That's her."

"And Yoshima-chan played evenly with Akaya, right?"

"Yep."

"Damn. Seigaku better be ready."

**~X~**

_Hey J Mo,_

_Things are going well. I'm starting to like it here._

_-A. Komboi_

**~X~**

End Chapter Twenty-Five

**A/N: **Phew. That was a difficult chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it, or at least understand Aiko better.

_**Fun facts about Komboi Aiko**_

_She likes to listen to Top Forty._

_Her favorite subject is Politics._

_Last week she accidentally called her Japanese teacher an inanimate object, by mixing up 'imasu' and 'arimasu.' To her defense, the teacher deserved it._

_She adores lattes almost as much as tennis. Except not really._

_Her old track team nickname was 'The Hulk.' Yeah, she doesn't know why either._

I know Sakuno's singles' match has generated a lot of attention, but I'm probably going to make it a shorter match. Not skip it entirely, but tackle it kind of in the same way I tackled the first few matches in chapters 6, 7, 8. Since I'll be updating more frequently during this summer, the chapter length might be shorter. (Also because tennis is hard to write. And I'm eager to write Valentine's/White day/normal not tennis chapters again.)

Yes, for those of you that have read '_Tagged'_ by thesadisttensaifuji, Atsue is from that fanfic. It's my dedication to her because thesadisttensaifuji has had a big impact on this story.

There was also a waitressing scene with Aiko, but it didn't _add_ anything to the chapter, so I'll put it in the Valentine's chapter or something.

The contest to see who can come up with a doubles pair name for Aiko and Kimiko is still on. You will get a dedication in the next chapter if I choose your suggestion.

**ALSO:** Remember that boy that broke my heart? I wrote a NiouOC fanfic about him, called Fence. Please read it and review, because it is very special to me. I also wrote a YuutaOC friendship, featuring Izumi.

One last thing. Whenever you're reading someone's work, please remember that the greatest gift you can give an author is feedback. Not just me, but most other authors as well. Your words can brighten our day.


	26. A Blooming Flower

**Disclaimer: **Let's be reasonable.

**A/N:** Man, I'm just coughing out chapters like they're nothing. Warning, shorter chapter. Also, this chapter was friggin difficult to write. (AKA it kinda SUCKS. don't kill me.)

Dedicated to **Yumchagirl** who wrote this in a review: " The way you manage to capture action so perfectly that I can visualise it like a movie in my head. At first I wasnt sure if it was because my brain is that amazing but then I realised that it was actually your skill and talent and my brain is just as average and boring as it always has been."

I laughed so hard.

Also, partially dedicated to asobi seksu for the title of my chapter. She has a Rikkai OC team fic of her own called "a blooming flower." Read it. :D

(For me, it's just blatant metaphor usage. Sakuno, Sakura, get it? *shot*)

To Recap: Aiko and Kimiko are beasts. That is all.

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter Twenty-six: A Blooming Flower**

**~x~**

"Sakuno, you should go warm up," her grandmother told her as the game with Aiko and Kimiko came to its end. "Get either Oshiro or Akane to go with you."

"Hai, Obaa-chan!"

Chiharu appeared by her shoulder. "I'll go. I need to warm up a bit myself," she offered.

Sakuno smiled in relief, grateful. Akane was nice and all, but she could be extremely strict and demanding. Chiharu was just nice. "Thank you, senpai!"

They went to some empty courts nearby. Sakuno jumped up and down a few times after removing her jersey – despite the first signs of spring, the air was still chilly.

Chiharu served, and they started a light rally. "So, Sakuno-chan," she asked, hitting a shot to the right corner. "It's your singles debut. Are you excited?"

"A-ah…" Sakuno hit the ball back, a straight shot. "More nervous, I guess…"

"Nervous can be good," Chiharu smiled knowingly. "I get nervous every time."

"E-eh?" She never would've guessed. Even though Chiharu was almost as shy as she was, she played so confidently and so assertively on court. "But senpai never shows it!"

"It's… easier for me once I get into the game," she described, making a diving motion with her hands. "Tennis is just a game, after all. Have fun, and play your best."

"But… it's just… watching the first two matches… Hyotei's so _strong…_" Sakuno felt an inward shiver as the memories flashed before her eyes. Omae's forehand, Gamaro's Firecracker, Ayumi's ball control and Rie's speed… Everyone on the Hyotei team had a dangerous trait.

"But we're strong too," Chiharu pointed out. "After all, we won the first two matches."

"But… that's because…" Sayaka's gymnastics, Suzume's aggressive play, Aiko's "Torpedo" and Kimiko's "Tidal Force"… '_You guys are strong…'_ is what she wanted to say. '_I'm not._'

"Sakuno-chan," Chiharu cut in gently. "You're wonderful. You've got potential. Akane sees it, Tezuka-san sees it, _everyone_ sees it."

"Eh? T-tezuka-buchou thinks…"

"Yes he does," Chiharu told her, hitting a backhand. "You didn't know? He noticed it during tryouts and mentioned it to Akane."

"Wow… that…" Sakuno blushed in delight. "That…"

"He… doesn't show it," Chiharu said delicately. "But Akane put you in singles three, and he didn't oppose it. Which means," She smiled again, her eyes forming crescents. "He trusts you to do us proud."

"Ah…" She parried the ball back. "Ne, senpai, you really understand Tezuka-buchou."

It was Chiharu's turn to blush, and she did so brilliantly, flushing a rosy red from the bottom of her neck to her forehead. "Th-that… not really, I just…"

Sakuno giggled.

**~x~**

"Ryuzaki, you can do it! Beat Hyotei!" Momoshiro cheered upon her return.

"Good luck, Ryuzaki-san! We're counting on you," Oishi said with an encouraging smile. Kikumaru gave her a full-on glomp for extra luck.

"You got this," Akane told her.

Izumi offered her a small smile and a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Hey Sakuno," Sayaka said lowly, pulling her to the side of the crowd, right before she was about to enter the court. "Listen. I know everyone wants you to win and everything, and hell, I want you to take down Hyotei with everything you've got. But if you lose…" She hesitated, unsure of how to phrase it. "It's _okay_, you know? We still have Akane-buchou and Chiharu-senpai."

"Um… O-okay…" Sakuno didn't know how to respond. '_But I don't want to lose…_'

"So," she grinned. "No pressure, aight?"

"A-ah, yeah…" Sakuno paused, looking downward. There was something she'd been both dreading and meaning to ask. "Ano… senpai?"

"Hmm?" Sayaka tilted her head to the side, confused. "What is it?"

"D-do you still want to partner with me in doubles?" Sakuno blurted out. "If you want to partner with Kimura-senpai, that's all right! She's so much better than me and—"

Sayaka burst out laughing. "_Replace_ you? With that sparrow? Heck no."

"Really?" Sakuno asked, feeling supremely relieved.

Sayaka shook her head quickly. "We ended up playing pretty well, but she's no _you_, Sakuno. You actually know how to cover me." She leaned over to ruffle her hair affectionately. "I could never replace you."

"Senpai…" For a strange reason, she felt her eyes well up a little. "That… thank you."

"All right, all right, stop being mushy," Sayaka gave her a shove. "Go get 'em, Sakuno."

~x~

"One set match! Ryuzaki to serve!"

Sakuno stood at the service line, her hand grasped around the ball. She breathed in, trying to stop her hand from shaking. '_They're all depending on you,_' she thought to herself, anxiety clawing at her insides. '_You can't let them down._'

She threw the ball up, jumped and served.

_BAM._ The return hit the ground behind her and bounced away before she could even move.

Sakuno's brown eyes widened in a sudden feeling of fear "…ah?" '_When did she…_' . Her hand began shaking even more violently, so she grabbed the fabric of her skirt to hide it. Her heartbeat set off in a rapid rhythm, thumping against her chest.

"Love-fifteen!"

Horio blinked his eyes furiously in disbelief. "What is this! Hyotei's singles are just as strong as their doubles!"

"Probably even stronger," Oishi predicted. "That timing wasn't something anyone could do."

"A return ace aimed behind the feet, where Ryuzaki would be most vulnerable after jumping to serve," Inui agreed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Very well placed."

Sayaka clenched her hands, feeling the nails dig into her skin. "C'mon Sakuno," she whispered.

The brown haired girl clutched the ball. '_You can do it. You can do it,_' she said to herself unconvincingly. She threw it up again, pounding her racket into it.

_BAM._ The return skirted along the line, and Sakuno tried. She _tried._ But the ball had topspin, and as she lunged forward with her racket, it evaded her even though she sprinted as fast as she could. She tugged on the end of her braid, frustrated because a step more and she could've gotten it. That's another point that she just gave the other girl.

She was always a step behind, wasn't she?

"Love-thirty!"

"Sakuno-chan's struggling," Aiko murmured, taking a long drink from her water bottle. Her body had yet to cool down from the last match. Kimiko was on her back, still panting like she just held her breath underwater for an hour.

"Yeah, she really is," Momoshiro concurred as the game continued.

Izumi tilted her head to the side, dark eyes watching as Sakuno managed to return the shot, but misinterpreted her opponent's next move completely. "She's better than this," she said softly. "She can play better than this."

The long-haired girl had played a practice match against Sakuno a week ago, with the score ending at six games to two. Sakuno was persistent and observant, two things Izumi was not.

The freshmen girl wasn't as fast and wasn't as strong, but she reacted with stunning speed and had a knack of knowing where the opponent would be. Why wasn't she showing that now?

"She's under too much pressure…" Inui said. "It's getting to her head."

Akane fixed her turquoise eyes onto the small figure on the court without speaking.

'_Come on, Sakuno. I know you can do this._'

~x~

Why was this so hard?

Sakuno was scared. _Scared_. She didn't want to lose.

' "_Tennis is just a game. Have fun, and play your best_." '

But she didn't _want_ to just have fun. She wanted to _win._

If she won, Seigaku would win the prefectural tournament.

If she lost…

' "_It's okay, you know. We still have Akane-buchou and Oshiro-senpai._"'

Sakuno cringed. Losing wouldn't count them out of the championship, but it meant she would have to face the disappointed faces of her teammates, her _friends_.

That was much scarier than losing.

'_Focus!_' she screamed at herself, '_Focus, Sakuno!_' But it didn't do anything. Her backhand was weak, her footwork was horrible, and her serve had no power. Her opponent was picking points off her like a child plucking petals off a flower.

And she knew that she was falling apart.

~x~

"She's not doing so well…" Oishi said worriedly, running a hand along the back of his head. "She's not doing well at all."

Akane stared straight ahead.

"Her opponent is very skilled," Fuji brought up.

She was. She wasn't quite as fast as Rie, or quite as powerful as Omae, but _dammit_ she was close. Sakuno was cowering and panicking, and desperately trying to pull herself together, but it was Hyotei, it was _Hyotei_, what was Akane-buchou _thinking_, she couldn't do this. And when that girl approached the net, in hues of gray and white, with eyes like glittering diamonds and the harshness of an iceberg, Sakuno couldn't help but shrink in terror.

She began to feel sick, sick with fear and dread, the same nausea-inducing fright that Akane had given her in her first practice match. That horrible feeling that you get when you _know_ the other person is in a whole other league than you? Yeah.

"It's not just that," Inui said slowly. "The Hyotei girl is aggressive and bold. Look at those winners she's hitting. They could go out. She's…"

"She's fearless," Kaidoh said, eyes boring into the Hyotei girl. "And Ryuzaki is full of fear."

"Beautiful vocabulary there," Suzume said sarcastically, causing Momoshiro to snicker. Kaidoh '_fshhhed_', choosing to ignore them both.

"The Hyotei girl is milking her fear for what it's worth, too," Aiko said, noticing the way her opponent sneered and smirked and laughed. "She knows exactly what she's doing."

Tezuka nodded twice. Once in appreciation, once in defeat.

"Sakuno is just having a bad day!" Tomoka said indignantly. She cupped her hands over her mouth. "FIGHT, SAKUNO!"

Suzume shook her head scathingly. "Reina-senpai could've beaten her. Izumi-senpai too, maybe." '_Against a school like this, they shouldn't be on the reserve._' Especially not Reina-senpai, she thought. '_Reina-senpai can beat me._'

Izumi readjusted her bangs, uncomfortable at suddenly being brought into the conversation. Caught between remaining humble and accepting her kohai's praise, she finally said, "It… would be hard."

"Ryuzaki-san is just under a lot of pressure," Kawamura said understandingly. "It's hard on her. Maybe if she was stronger mentally…"

'_She's so hard on herself,_' Chiharu thought. "She gives herself a lot of pressure too."

"Look how tense she is," Izumi said softly, her eyes on Sakuno's movements – choppy, awkward, rough, just like dancers that were experiencing stage fright. "She knows how to do the movements, she just can't perform."

Kikumaru turned to his friends, his brow pinched thoughtfully. "Ne, Sakuno-chan didn't even _want_ to play singles, right?"

Akane's expression hardened immediately. "Well, we can't always get what we want."

The red-headed boy stared at her blankly. "But, against Hyotei, shouldn't we have-"

Coach Ryuzaki suddenly threw them a death glare from over the bench. "Hey! Stop chit-chatting and focus!"

Or, as Ryoma interpreted it, '_If you talk shit about my granddaughter again, I will come after you with a sword._'

The arrogant first year had been silent so far. Ryoma didn't want to add to the conversation, even though Momoshiro already asked for his input twice. He just didn't feel like talking about Ryuzaki.

He didn't want to analyze her movements or criticize her in his head either. Recently, he had begun to avoid thinking about her, because his mind would do funny things when he thought about her. So instead, he held onto the edge of the banister in front of him, and willed her to play like the Ryuzaki he knew. He chanted her name in his head, because it was something simple for him to hold on to, like a silent cheer, like an unheard prayer.

'_Ryuzaki. Ryuzaki. Ryuzaki.'_

Steady as a drum, pulsing like a heartbeat.

~x~

"This is having a contrariwise effect," Reina said quietly so only Akane could hear.

Akane didn't say anything.

"The result is inimica—"

"Stop," Akane's voice was as severe and cutthroat as her expression, even though her eyes had not left the game. "Watanabe, stop."

That stopped her. Akane hadn't used her last name in almost a year. Reina let her eyes move from the game to the former captain for a brief second. And then, daringly, she said, "You know I'm right."

"No."

"You're upset that your plan isn't working."

"I know what I'm doing."

"I'm not sure you do."

They were standing so close to each other; Akane's folded arms could almost brush against Reina's, and they could almost feel the warmth of each other through the fabric. But the chill of the wind sweeping through the narrow space between them reminded them that they were two separate entities, and two very different people.

"She will pull through."

"She's outclassed."

It was true. Sakuno's opponent was strong, swift, and smart. Statistically, her skill level was greater than the auburn haired girl. Akane watched stonily as she put a fierce smash to the edge of the court, the ball barely staying in. Sakuno never even made it close to catching the ball.

Her reply was colored with defensiveness. "I don't expect her to win."

"At least you're practical enough to know that she can't."

Chiharu suddenly glanced towards them concernedly. The hostility between the two friends was stretched around the air, like a rubber band begging to snap. She bit her lip, looking between them, wondering if she should interfere.

This argument was bigger than both of them. This was whether or not the human mind could overpower statistical data. Whether or not Sakuno would crack under pressure and spiral downhill in despair, or rise now and put up a fight. Reina calculated, Akane believed.

The win didn't matter to Akane. Sakuno's development was more important. They could still snare the prefectural championship with a loss.

The win mattered to Reina. She knew that with a win, the flow would go back to Hyotei's side in a flash. And at the rate this game was going, it wasn't helping Sakuno at all.

"Maybe you should've put me in singles three."

Akane felt a twisting knot in her stomach, and her irritation grew. Who was Reina to challenge her authority? "Maybe you should mind your own business and take notes."

Reina knew she was treading in dangerous waters. "Maybe… Sakuno isn't as strong as you think. Can you just accept that you might've misread someone for once?"

Akane's eyes darkened and a muscle tightened in her jaw. This was personal, and she had a sudden urge to _hurt_ Reina, hurt her and break her, just to prove to her, to prove to _herself_ that she had power over her. Those malicious words came almost too easily, "Maybe you should go back to being Inui. I liked you better then."

She heard Reina's sharp intake of breath and immediately regretted her words. Hastily, she broke her gaze from the game and whirled to face her. "Look, I didn't mean—"

But tight-lipped Reina shook her head. "It's fine. I understand."

"Rein—"

"I need some space." And with those words, she swiftly turned and walked away.

Chiharu hesitated for a moment before starting after her, but not before shooting Akane a look. It wasn't a dirty look, (she doubted Chiharu was capable of such a thing), but it was a hurtful one, tinged with betrayal, like Akane had hurt Chiharu instead.

It wasn't a dirty look. But it made her feel so, so filthy.

~x~

Sakuno was down 3-0, and she was starting to give up.

'_I can't give up. I can't._' Because that would be even more humiliating than losing, and that would mean she had not progressed at all from when she played Akane.

Had she progressed at all? Sakuno knew she had, yet the feeling of dismay as another ball sped past her racket said otherwise.

Another ball impacted her end of the court. She sprinted after it as fast as she could, even though she knew she wouldn't make it, she would _never_ make it, and the wave of despair all but consumed her.

"I'm trying so hard…" she whispered to herself. '_Why can't I return anything?_'

She would lose. She would _lose._ What was she going to do? What would her grandmother say? What would Akane-buchou say? or… -The knot inside her tightened again in horror as she heard Chiharu's voice echo,

' "_Tezuka-buchou sees it… your potential…" _'

Tezuka-buchou, she thought in dismay. What would Tezuka-buchou say?

_'What would _Ryoma-kun_ say_?'

_'I can't… _lose.' The brown-haired girl was quaking from head to toe. She started becoming frantic, hitting shots that soared out of bounds.

Watching her struggle from the sidelines, Momoshiro gave Ryoma a nudge. "Oi, Echizen, you should say something to her."

"Yadda." It was a reflexive response.

"Come on…" Momoshiro's eyes turned serious. "She… she needs something. I don't know what, but I think maybe you can give it to her."

"Well, what am I supposed to say?" said the short freshman irritably.

"I don't know!" Momoshiro hissed in response. "Something encouraging, I guess."

"Mada ma—" He stopped when his senpai grabbed him in a headlock. "Ow!"

"If you say that, I will personally _strangle_ you."

**~x~**

"Reina…" Chiharu called softly, catching up to the black-haired girl. "Reina, I…"

The Seigaku senior was on the ground, the tree behind her supporting her huddled form. A hand was pressed over her mouth, trying desperately to suppress the sobs that were tearing through her throat. Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled over her closed fingers.

"Oh Reina," Chiharu said again. She knelt down beside the girl, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Reina, please don't cry."

Reina shook her head back and forth frantically, the hand still clamped over her mouth, though it was doing little to stifle the whimpers that were escaping her. Her shoulders were shuddering with every choked cry.

Her perfect eyeliner was starting to smear at the edges, black tears carving dark paths down her smooth skin.

She looked like a broken doll.

"Reina, please don't…" Chiharu felt tears fill her own eyes, just because she looked like she was in so much _pain_, and it hurt Chiharu to see her like this. "Please don't cry." '_You idiot,_' she thought to herself. '_Get a hold of yourself. Reina needs you to be strong right now, not burst into tears like a baby._' But the salty substance continued to leak out of her amber eyes, and she clutched Reina's shoulder as if she was trying to fix something inside, something internal.

She suddenly had a flashback to a girl sitting on a carpeted floor in a spa room, her hands pressed against a boy's arm, trying to take away some of his pain.

_'But how do you take away a pain like this?'_

"You know Akane didn't… she didn't _mean_ it…" Chiharu tried. "She would never…"

'_Except maybe she would._'

"Akane…" she continued regardless. "She just… it's…" Chiharu looked downwards, her voice becoming whisper soft. "You can't… challenge her."

This was the same girl who brushed back Chiharu's tears countless times as she cried over something insignificant, who held Reina's hand as she confronted numerous fears. Yet this girl could be so ruthless on the courts, and so stern in her leadership of the team.

They both knew it had to do with Sakuno. From day one, Akane had taken the timid freshmen under her wing. She was constantly making the first year go through trials, testing her, fostering her growth. In a few short weeks, Sakuno had become _her_ project, her protégé.

To question Sakuno's skill would be questioning Akane's judgment.

"She didn't mean it," Chiharu repeated, as if convincing herself. "Not like that. She really didn't…"

Gradually, Reina's breathing was evening, only jarred by the occasional hiccup that caught in her throat. "Yeah…" she whispered. "Yeah."

~x~

They returned to the court, just as the Hyotei player nailed a beautiful smash, winning another game.

"Game, Hyotei! Four games to one!"

"She managed to keep one service game, but…" Momoshiro murmured. "Hyotei is still too strong, huh…"

"This might be as far as she can go…" Inui said, staring at Ryuzaki's small, exhausted body as she sat next to her grandmother.

Reina resumed her position at Akane's right shoulder. The former captain turned upon hearing her footsteps, relieved at her return. "Reina," she said, remorse coursing through her when she saw her tear-stained cheeks. "Really I'm so-"

She held up a hand, stopping her firmly, although her voice was trembling. "We can talk later. Right now, we need to support Ryuzaki."

Akane closed her parted lips, stung. "Right." Her blue-green eyes went back to the small girl, who looked like her weight might snap her tired legs in half.

Kaidoh's voice was a low growl. "What are her chances?"

"Don't ask," Suzume said.

"What do you think?" Kawamura asked Fuji.

"It doesn't look good," he replied. His eyes were open, brilliant blue.

Akane shook her head. "I know she's so much better than this."

"If she has a fight left in her, she needs to get it out now."

~x~

She sat on the bench, breathing hard, with her elbows on her knees and her head down. Beads of perspiration dripped down her face, falling on the court. "Obaa-chan…"

"What is it, Sakuno?"

"I'm… not playing very well right now, am I?"

Ryuzaki Sumire looked at her granddaughter. Exhaling, she turned her face towards the Hyotei side. "You're not playing like you," she finally said. "You need to calm down and relax."

She bit her lip. "I just… I just want to…" '_To win. To show everyone that I belong here._'

Her grandmother put her hands on her hips accusingly. "Why are you so nervous?"

"It's different. It's Hyotei, and they—"

"How's it different?"

"They're strong!" Sakuno almost cried. Couldn't they see that this girl was so much faster, stronger, and better than she was? There was no _way _she could ever compete…

Coach Ryuzaki suddenly had the urge to shake some sense into her granddaughter. Her lack of confidence was just… _annoying_. Sometimes her modesty just went too far. '_She needs to believe in herself._' She needed to show Sakuno how strong she really was. "We're strong too. And you've played practice matches against every girl in the team, right?"

"Not Kimiko-senpai or Aiko-senpai," Sakuno managed to argue. "I've only played them in doubles…"

"Okay..." Coach Ryuzaki paused thoughtfully. "How many games did you take away from Izumi?"

"T-two…"

"What about Sayaka?"

"Three…"

"Reina?"

Reina was too good. "None…" Sakuno said dejectedly. "But I managed to take a few points away," she added admittedly after a moment.

Coach Ryuzaki smiled at the new note of confidence in her voice. "See? You can play so well against your friends. So why can't you play like that against a stranger?"

"But—"

"Just imagine that it's one of them," her grandmother told her. "Imagine that it's a practice match with one of them. It's not a big deal. Okay?"

~x~

Every player was different, with different preferences and different needs when it came to atmosphere. Sayaka and Kikumaru, being giant showoffs, played their best in the middle of screaming crowds. They ate up the attention; grinning in the spotlight and bowing for their audience. Suzume and Tezuka both had a ridiculous drive to win, with an unshakeable focus. The tenser the environment, the tougher the opponent, the better their game.

Sakuno was different.

She was shy, but she was social. That's why doubles suited her personality so much. Being driven and focused didn't suit her. She needed a relaxed environment, one that she could be at ease. That pulled out her best game. In doubles, Sayaka's good cheer and easygoing personality created that for her.

Coach Ryuzaki folded her arms. This was singles. There was no Sayaka to help her. Sakuno would need to create her own environment.

~x~

'_"Just imagine it's one of them…_"'

Sakuno lowered her torso into receiving position.

'_Just a practice match…_' she thought to herself. '_Just an everyday practice match.'_

She tried her hardest. The Hyotei girl's serve rocketed past her left, and she winced involuntarily at the speed. Sakuno shivered as she made eye contact with those icy, icy eyes. The girl's lips curled into a sneer, and Sakuno felt that surge of paralyzing fear take over. How could she pretend like this was a practice match with a friend?

So she closed her eyes for a brief moment, teeth clenched. Inhale. Exhale. Relax.

'_Imagine it's with one of them…_'

Inhale.

'_The senpais have better serves than she does…_'

Exhale.

'_You aren't afraid of them, so why are you afraid of her?_'

Inhale.

She slowly opened her eyes, like a curtain being drawn apart.

Exhale.

The serve came again, bullet fast. However, Sakuno's eyes caught its trajectory, seeing through it. She raced towards the T. Her eyes focused and locked in on the shot, and she smashed her racket into it with ferocity.

It skidded to the edge, a return ace.

"Fifteen All!"

Everyone was struck speechless for a moment.

"Wha… ah… w-what?" was Oishi's intelligent response.

Sayaka recovered first. She grinned and punched the air. "Hell _YEAH._ GO SAKUNO!"

"Time for Sakuno-chan's super power counterattack!" Kikumaru announced enthusiastically. "Seigaku! Fight-O!"

The Hyotei player shrugged it off. So what if Sakuno was able to return her serve once? It's not like she'll be able to do it consistently.

Except the look in Sakuno's eyes said otherwise. Sakuno stared her down. '_I'm not afraid of you,_' she told her, no, she told _herself _forcefully. '_You're just another girl, a girl like me._'

The minute her racket came in contact with the ball, Sakuno moved, lurching to the right. Her eyes glowed with a new willpower. The serve was jetting towards her, fast and furious. She closed her eyes again, for a split second.

_Dark skin. Fiery eyes. Beads clacking together. Powerful muscles. A serve that burned its way through the court…_

"Aiko-senpai's serve is better!" Sakuno declared as she swung the shot crosscourt, wrong-footing her opponent.

The towel in Aiko's hand slipped to the ground in shock.

Her opponent wasn't done. In the next rally, she hit a straight shot with pinpoint precision, to the baseline.

_Glinting glasses. A secretive smile. Cool, calculating eyes. A ball racing to the edge of the court, landing spot-on on the line…_

Sakuno drew her arm back. "Reina-senpai's shots are more precise!" She rammed her racket into the shot, hitting deep into the court.

Reina's eyes widened behind her glasses.

The ball came back to her end in the next rally, heavy and with a wicked topspin.

_Long, black hair. Elegant sidesteps. Mysterious eyes. A shot that dropped low to the ground and had almost no recoil bounce…_

"Izumi-senpai gets better topspin on the ball!" She anchored her feet and twisted her upper body, adding even more spin as the ball streaked back towards the other side.

Izumi blinked, the tiniest of smiles appearing upon her lips.

Sayaka felt her jaw slacken. "Sakuno… she's…"

"…using her experiences with us," Chiharu completed, eyes wide in awe.

All those practice matches were replaying in her head. Her legs moved on their own, and her arm swung the racket back as if it had its own mind. The tension in her body was melting away like butter.

With every flashback, she retained a little of her senpai in her movements. Suzume's tenacity, Sayaka's flexibility, Chiharu's instincts and Reina's precision all started to manifest in her play.

She hit as smash with Aiko's fierceness.

"Su…Sugoi, Sakuno!" Tomoka regained her voice. "GO SAKUNO!"

She countered a volley with Izumi's elegance.

"Nice," Ryoma said quietly. "Nice, Ryuzaki."

Momoshiro smiled gently, before putting his hand on Kachiro's head. "Oi, you guys. She needs your support too. How come you aren't cheering?"

"A-ah!" The freshmen trio straightened to attention and yelled, "RYUZAKI, FIGHT-O!"

Oishi smiled proudly. "Ryuzaki has come a long way," he said, turning towards Akane. "And some of us were too blind to even notice."

No one was more aware of the skill level gap than Sakuno herself. She chased after the rest of the regulars, tirelessly, getting a little closer every time.

Progress was a journey, a journey that was agonizingly slow and invariably disappointing. But it was never an illusion.

~x~

Sakuno's counterattack continued. The games she had with her senpais were replaying in her head, over and over. Whenever she saw a familiar movement in her opponent's moves, her mind associated it with someone she knew.

"Kimiko-senpai's drop shots are better!"

"Suzume-senpai's shots have more power!"

The two girls smiled at the mention of there names. "Damn right I do," was Suzume's response, whereas Kimiko was content with cheering Sakuno's name at increasingly higher frequencies.

Every game she played against the other girls had brought her to this point. With those games, she got to see their movements over and over; she learned how to react to their specialty shots.

"Akane-buchou…" Sakuno took a breath before hitting the shot with a force that none of them thought her small frame could contain. "Akane-buchou is more intimidating than you!"

The regulars burst into laughter. Kimiko clutched her stomach, doubled over in giggles. Even Kaidoh laughed, the sound low and rumbling.

Fuji chuckled. "Well, _that's_ the most accurate statement of them all…"

"You know, I take that as an insult, Sakuno!" Akane called from where she was standing, although her eyes were dancing with mirth.

"She's kinda right, though," Sayaka said with sheepish grin. "You're scary."

"Shut up, or I'll give you a scary amount of laps," Akane said.

Pause. "Did that sound funnier in your head?"

"It did. Now shut up. I'm not kidding about the laps."

~x~

Suddenly, her opponent unleashed a smash. Sakuno saw the movement in her arms and knew exactly where it was going to land. She sprinted to her spot and prepared to counter it with what was unmistakably a rising shot.

"Rising shot?" Kimiko exclaimed, jumping up and down in her excitement. "She learned that after watching me?"

"After watching you and practicing on her own," Aiko murmured. Sakuno was no genius. There was no way she could copy a move after seeing it once. She practiced. Oh, Aiko had seen Sakuno swing her racket at the gym, at night, when she thought most people had left. Practicing smashes, volleys, and yes, even a rising counter.

The ball hit the ground, and she arched her arm back. '_What!_' Quick as a flash, the ball bounced upwards, spinning wildly straight towards her face.

"Sakuno!" Sayaka sprung to her feet. Akane's gaze snapped in concern. Aiko clenched her hand into an anxious fist.

"Sakuno!" Coach Ryuzaki gripped the side of her bench, ready to lunge onto the court if her granddaughter was hurt.

'…_Ryuzaki!_' Ryoma unconsciously moved a step closer, his eyes alert.

Sakuno jerked her head a few centimeters to the left, the ball grazing her cheek. She gasped at the stinging sensation it left on her skin. A few strands of her hair dropped to the ground.

The ball landed behind her, bouncing up and down innocently.

"Thirty – Fifteen!"

"That was dangerous," Oishi said, breathing out. "If she takes one like that head on…"

"It could really hurt her," Kawamura agreed.

"The ball had a vicious twist," Kaidoh muttered. Clearly Hyotei was not holding back.

"Should we call a timeout to see if she's okay?" Chiharu asked worriedly.

Tezuka kept his stern gaze. "I'm sure Ryuzaki-sensei will make the proper decision."

Their coach relaxed evidently after Sakuno managed to dodge the last shot. She thought about pulling her out to put some gauze over the scratch, but decided wisely against it. An unnecessary break would dampen Sakuno's spirit, and she needed it to continue.

Suzume leveled a nasty look at the Hyotei player. "Of course she _had _to have an ace up her sleeve. Couldn't give us a break, could she?" Hyotei was just pulling out hidden talents, one by one, and it irritated her. It irritated her that she couldn't be the one on the courts, because she wanted to hit that twist straight back into that girl's face. '_Ryuzaki better not run…_'

"They're trying to break her, too," Inui murmured, writing it down.

"Eh?" The freshmen trio looked over their shoulders for an explanation. He'd used that word again, '_break_'. "What does that mean, Inui-senpai?"

"She kept that move hidden until now," he explained. "So it was a big shock when she pulled it out. Just like when the doubles players kept their skills hidden to put pressure on Marui-san."

"Yeah, they were meanie-mos," Kimiko whined.

Inui flipped back a few pages. "On top of that, it's something aimed towards the face, inducing fear. Kimura-san likes to do that too."

Suzume shrugged indifferently. "What?" she said to the glares sent her way. "It works."

Inui went back to the page he was writing on, the set of his mouth grim. '_Sakuno isn't as strong as Marui-san. She could really break._'

"Now the true test begins," Reina murmured cryptically.

~x~

'_She aimed for me!_' Sakuno felt her heart hammer against her ribcage. She lifted a hand to touch the spot the ball had scraped her, biting her lip as a burning pain shot through her cheek. Her hands began to shake again.

'_Come on. You can do this. Come on,' _she willed herself, and stepped back into receiving mode.

In the middle of the roaring crowds, she heard them chanting her name.

"Fight, fight, Seigaku! Win, win, Seigaku!"

For a moment, she listened, letting their cheers become her motivation, fuel her energy, like steady oil pumps into a failing engine.

"Fight, fight, Sakuno! Win, win, Sakuno!"

She could hear Sayaka's loud, rowdy, shout, and Kimiko's high-pitched squeal. She could detect Kikumaru's cheerful voice and the adorable chants from the freshmen trio. Tomoka was loyally raising her voice above everyone else, clearly trying to outdo the deafening roars of Hyotei's cheering squad. And if she listened really closely…

Was that… _Ryoma-kun's _voice?

He wasn't cheering very loudly, but he was cheering nonetheless. Except, she wondered with a smile, could it really be called 'cheering' if he used a bored tone?

Either way, she felt warmth spread through her, like someone had shot a rainbow through her veins. She lowered her body and bent her knees, just like Ryoma taught her.

'_I'm ready._'

A fierce rally began again, and this time, the Hyotei player wasted no time in using that smash again.

"Watch out!" Tomoka yelled as the ball came crashing down. "Sakuno, get out of the way!"

Sakuno wasn't moving.

"What is she doing?" Sayaka said. "She'll get hit!"

"Sakuno, don't be reckless!" Coach Ryuzaki cried to her granddaughter.

The brown haired girl planted her feet firmly into the ground. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, gathering her resolve. '_All right_,' she thought. Her eyes shot open. She saw her smashing form clearly. Suddenly, the smash wasn't that unfamiliar to her. '_Ryoma-kun…_'

_Messy hair. Golden cat eyes. A small, perfect serving form…_

"Ryoma-kun…"

His eyes widened at the sound of his name.

She sidestepped to the left. "Ryoma-kun's twist is better!" Her arm swung forward and she whipped the ball a sharp return, scoring a point in the empty court.

"Forty-fifteen!"

The first year rookie just stared at her, stunned, for a moment, unable to decipher the weird feelings that were going through his head. But he was proud, he knew that much, at least.

So he smiled.

"Oh, look at that…" Momoshiro latched onto him, giving him a noogie. "Looks like all your coaching paid off!"

"That hurts… Momo-senpai…"

Akane saw the sureness in Sakuno's stance, like a mountain. She saw the passion in her eyes that burned like an inferno. "Oh dear," she said, smiling. "We seem to have awoken a sleeping tiger."

"Beaver," Ryoma corrected automatically, while ducking out of Momoshiro's grasp.

Akane gave him a weird look. "What?"

"…nothing."

Coach Ryuzaki's grin could not be wider. "Oh? I guess the sleeping bud has finally burst into bloom…"

~x~

None of them thought that their little freshman could have improved so much. She was always in the background. Being Sayaka's partner, her main objective was to cover the crazily acrobatic Sayaka and fill in holes. The opponents often forgot about her, and that was their secret weapon.

Sakuno shone in this match. She had broken apart from depending on a partner and learned to cover a court single-handedly.

Her style was no different from what she brought out on the doubles court. She was a defensive player. But by countering her opponent's finishing moves, she managed to catch them off guard.

Hyotei was baffled at this sudden switch of events. This was the little freshmen girl, well known for being the weakest member on the Seigaku team. Their player should've crushed her with a disgustingly effortless ease. The fact that she was putting up a fight and so… _happily_… it didn't make any sense.

Perhaps they would never understand. Hyotei was a hierarchy of skill, with lineups determined by harsh, tournament-style ranking matches. It was every man (or in this case, woman) for himself. If you helped someone improve, you could get a knife in the back when they took your singles slot in the next ranking match.

Seigaku was a brotherhood, a _family_. Lineups were decided based on play styles and personal factors rather than skill, (and sometimes completely on a whim). They all knew that in order to succeed, they had to unite together, help each individual be the strongest they could be. And just like taking care of the baby of the family, everyone devoted a little extra care and a little extra time to the little freshman girl.

And in this match, the little freshman girl proved that all that extra time put in to help her improve was worth it.

So, even though she lost the match 6-4, the regulars cheered as if she'd won.

~x~

"That was such a good match, Sakuno-chan!" Kikumaru said, hugging her tightly.

"R-really?"

"It was!" Kimiko added. "When you started saying our names aloud, I almost started tearing up! It was so moving!"

"Psh," Aiko tapped her racket against Kimiko's forehead. "You were about to bawl like a baby."

"Was _not_," she protested, slapping her senpai's racket away.

Sakuno laughed as she listened to everyone's compliments and blushed from embarassment. Even Kaidoh had sullenly sauntered up and said, "Your smash got stronger," quickly before sulking away. "It was really all thanks to you!" she said honestly to all of them.

Akane approached her, and Sakuno clasped her hands behind her back, ready to take whatever critique she had.

"I'm proud, Sakuno," Akane finally said, and she flushed with pleasure. The taller girl rested a hand on her shoulder. "Really, really proud. You did us good."

"I… I wanted to win… but…."

"But I think you _did_ win, in a way," Akane said, her eyes looking right into Sakuno's. "Right?"

Sakuno knew what she meant and beamed.

After praising her granddaughter loudly, Coach Ryuzaki told her to take a jog to cool off. "The way you turned the match around in the middle?" she said with a grin. "That kind of exertion could harm your muscles in the long run if you don't cool off and stretch. Just come back before the next match, okay?"

"Okay!" Sakuno set off at a light pace. After a while, thirsty, she decided to go find a vending machine. She was in the process of putting money in the machine when someone tossed a can of Ponta at her, hitting her in the middle of her back. "Ow!"

And her coin went into the machine anyways. Figures.

"Ne. Not bad, Ryuzaki," Ryoma said, drinking from his own can of Ponta.

"Hah?" It took her a moment to realize that he was talking about the game. "Ah! Thank you, Ryoma-kun! I lost, but…" She looked up, her eyes shining. "I feel like I did well!"

"You countered her smash pretty quickly," he said in a reluctantly impressed tone.

Ryuzaki's fingers unconsciously went to her wound. Oishi had already put a bandage over it. "I-it's because of practicing with Ryoma-kun's twist serve! Thanks to you, I was able to counter it." She smiled at him shyly, but her smile was so earnest that it caused a slight heat to fill his cheeks.

He quickly took a sip of Ponta to hide it, looking to the side. "Still… Mada mada da ne."

She pouted. "Mou… Ryoma-kun just wants an excuse to say that."

"Your hair is still too long," he added, just because he knew it would rile her up more.

"Ryoma-kun just wants an excuse to say that too!"

He kicked her lightly, a small grin on his face. Then abruptly, he turned away. "I'm heading back," he said, without turning to look at her, and began walking.

She stared, confused at the sudden change in attitude. "Ah…"

Then she made a face at him. _'Same old Ryoma-kun, all right…_' Still… she sighed, her smile reappearing. Nothing could make her unhappy right now. She picked up the Ponta followed him happily, practically skipping all the way back to the courts.

~x~

"Reina? Warm up with me?" Akane asked cautiously. Then she kicked herself mentally. _'C'mon, where's that bluntness you're so famous for?_' "Why am I trying to come up with an excuse to talk to you?

"Let me rephrase," she started over. "Reina, can we talk?"

She smiled a little, and that caused Akane's chest to feel lighter. At least she could still make her smile. "You were right," Reina said, her smile suddenly carrying a touch of sadness. "She put up a fight. She almost won, too. You were right."

"Oh, that…" Akane stopped. "Yeah…"

Reina looked down, finding a patch of grass to stare at. "You were right. I was wrong."

Akane saw the tremble in her lip that she was trying to cover with a smile, like cheap gold paint smeared over iron.

"Reina…"

"I must've miscalculated again. I must've…" Her smile was flaking away just like paint.

"Stop," Akane said, because that's all she could think of.

She stopped.

"Look," Akane plowed on. "I'm really, really sorry. What I said before… It was just downright mean and horrible. And you know I didn't _mean _it… I mean, I'm the one who's been telling you to find yourself, right?

"And it's also because…" she continued, her eyes softening. "Sakuno has had to fight so hard to get acknowledged, and the least we can do is _believe _in her."

Reina was fiddling with her hair so she wouldn't have to make eye contact. "I know," she finally said, dropping the smile completely, "I know you didn't mean it. But sometimes I think… when I'm like this, well, _he_ likes me better… so I thought maybe everyone likes me better too." Her voice cracked slightly. "My sister never had trouble getting people to like her, and…

"And when you said that, I just thought that it might be true."

"For someone who's really smart, you are really, _really_ dumb," Akane said exasperatedly. "We've been friends for what? Four years? Reina, we like you for _you_. We liked you when you were Miyuki-senpai, and we liked you when you were Inui, okay?"

Akane nudged her a little, just to get her to look up.

"We like you no matter what. We'd like you even if you," She threw her hands around, looking for inspiration. "Had a moustache. Actually, that would be hard. Please don't grow one."

Reina let out a rare laugh, a laugh that was light and fragile and threatening to break, but a laugh nonetheless.

**~x~**

Akane and Fuuma battled it out in singles two.

At first, it seemed like Fuuma had the upper edge. She was winning easy points, discovering Akane's weak areas, and making the game fly by. However, halfway through the second game, Akane started employing her mental tactics, pointing out that some of the so-called 'weak points' Fuuma discovered were fake. Fuuma, being data-oriented, got trapped in a vicious cycle, having theory after theory disproved. As the games went on, she finally stuck to one strategy _stubbornly,_ refusing to let Akane control her. She managed to break through once more, and the game went into a tiebreak. Then, Fuuma revealed her ultimate technique.

Fuuma knew how to close her heart.

She knew how to make her expression a complete and utter blank slate. Akane had yet to encounter someone who could do that; someone who could become completely unreadable in a second. So it came to no surprise that she lost her match, 7-6.

"Nice try, Akane-san," Oishi tossed her a towel.

"That's _insane_…" Akane was muttering, clearly upset with her loss. "You can't just _do that…_" She removed her perspiration-soaked headband and swiped the towel over her forehead. "That girl has issues."

"Huh?" Oishi asked.

"You can't detach your emotions from your face so easily," Akane said darkly. "That's not normal." She glanced over at the blonde girl, who was smiling for her team – a smile that was very much fixed and constructed. Vaguely, she wondered what her family was like.

Only Hyotei, she thought. Only Hyotei, with its elitist society and outrageous expectations, would have someone who knew how to become dead on the outside in an instant.

**~x~**

"It came down to singles one after all…" Coach Ryuzaki said. She looked to her number one seed. "How are you doing?"

"I'm ready," Chiharu spoke with conviction, her posture straight and her voice firm. "I'll take home the prefectural championship for Seigaku, sensei!"

"Shigohara is going to be a strong opponent," Tezuka warned her. "You'll need to play your best in this game."

"Hai, Tezuka-san!"

Her voice was eager and sunny. Tezuka frowned slightly. If Chiharu wanted to win, she would have to bring out the girl that he had caught a glimpse of in the mountains – the girl that managed to take control in a split second and turn a dire situation around. The girl that had a deathly intense focus and a coldblooded determination. The girl that stood with the firmness of an oak tree and had eyes like twin bolts of lightning.

He hoped that she didn't need for someone's life to be on the line to bring out that girl.

Chiharu stepped onto the court.

The whole team breathed in a collective breath.

It was time to end this.

**~x~**

A/N: Thank god that's over.

Next chapter: Chiharu goes full out from the start, but Shigohara is obviously stronger in every aspect. What happens when being a miracle isn't enough? Will they lose the prefectural championship to Hyotei? Titled '**Miracle, Broken!**_**'**_

Maybe you'll even see some more military!Chiharu.

I listened to "Dream Believer" a lot, from the PoT OST. So when Sakuno's going all beast mode, that's the background music. I also had Owl City on repeat, since that's my thinking music. (Hence, the "rainbow veins" reference. xD)

For Aiko/Kimiko pair, I'm stuck between two names. One is Cocoa (KoKo) pair, because Cocoa is dark and sweet and their names both have 'ko'. The other is Waterbugs. Because both their moves are associated with water, ("Tidal Force" and "Torpedo"), and Aiko goes swimming and apparently Kimiko likes to throw herself randomly in rivers.

After the next chapter, it'll be Valentine's, then possibly another Prince of RANDOM SPORT, then White Day.

Don't know when the next chapter will be out. I'm suffering 'sick of tennis' syndrome.

Destiny921 wrote a FujiIzumi fic, and it stuns me that people would write fanfics of this fanfic. That is just… awesome.

My birthday is in a month… so if you guys want to write me fics, or draw me stuff… *hinthint*

Oh, the sketches of the other four OC pics are up. The artist has gone MIA though, so I'll find someone else to ink and color them in. They're in a photobucket album, the link is on my profile.

Rikkai will reappear. No worries.

Finally. I hate the new review box on FFN. But drop me a review anyways.


	27. Miracle, Broken!

**Disclaimer: NOT MINE.**

HOLY SHIT I UPDATED.

My life in a nutshell: So, remember that boy? That boy that ripped my heart apart and threw the pieces in my face? The one I wrote a NiouOC about?

He comes to visit. We hang out. Just before he leaves, he mentions he has another girl.

THE. FUCK.

(Thank you everyone who read and reviewed that NiouOC btw. I love the comments that are like, "he should rot in hell!" They cheered me up.)

**Dedicated to:** torishia-chan, paraparadance, CharismaCrew, AznMistress, znk99fg7 and Destiny921 for writing the best reviews ever.

**Also dedicated to** thesadisttensaifuji for walking me through this. This chapter could not be written without her.

**To recap:** Last time, Sakuno put up a fight but lost her match. Akane too, lost her match. It's down to Singles One, and Seigaku is sending Chiharu out to battle with Shigohara. Basically, this chapter is just tennis.

**To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter 27: Miracle, Broken!**

**~x~**

_Where there is hope, there can be faith. _

_Where there is faith, miracles can occur._

**~x~**

There are two types of people in the world, prodigies and ordinary people.

Inui furtively glanced at the people beside him as he pondered this.

On the boy's side, prodigies would include Tezuka Kunimitsu, Fuji Syusuke and Echizen Ryoma. (Inui was not foolish enough to believe that he himself qualified in this category.)

The girls' side was a bit harder and less clear-cut, he noted with interest. Kimiko had extraordinary talent, whether she was aware of it or not. Reina drew her strength from tactical reasoning. Suzume was probably the closest thing to a prodigy they had.

As for Hyotei… Shigohara was, without a doubt, a prodigy. Inui knew this. He had half a green notebook of data to prove it. Her tennis sense and her potential rocketed through his charts.

So, where did that leave Chiharu?

Sure, she was called a 'Miracle', but was she a prodigy? No, she wasn't, Inui concluded after a moment. She was just an average player who had a special gift. She didn't have Shigohara's sheer _talent_, talent that glowed like a ball of energy that begged to be harnessed.

But the thing about prodigies and ordinary people is that hard work and perseverance often leveled out the playing field.

Inui nodded to himself and opened a notebook, pen poised and ready on the white empty paper. This match was going to be interesting.

**~X~**

"One set match!"

Shigohara was at the service line, ready to begin.

There was a sudden commotion among the crowds. Chiharu pulled out a white blindfold and wrapped it securely around her eyes. The white streamers of cloth blew out behind her, like a samurai's head ribbon.

The onlookers dissolved into stunned whispers.

"Oi, oi… look at that…"  
"Is she crazy? She's underestimating Shigohara…"

"Cocky bitch… Shigohara-senpai needs to knock her down a peg."

The Hyotei team, however, remained silent. Because of Fuuma's extensive data collection, they knew that being blindfolded only made Chiharu stronger.

Kikumaru grinned. "Hmm… Oshiro-chan is all pumped up, isn't she?"

"Going full out from the start," Akane concluded. Then she added in an undertone, "Not that she has a choice."

"SEIGAKU BURNING!" Kawamura burst out randomly, waving Kimiko's (bright pink) racket around. "OSHIRO STROOOOONG!"

"What?" Kimiko complained at all the glares sent her way from people that had to dive to avoid Kawamura's crazy swings. "I just felt like she needed some support!"

"Oh, look at you guys," Inoue approached the team with a friendly smile. "You guys are all fired up for this next match."

"Yep!" Sayaka declared. "Chiharu-senpai is going to kick-butt."

"BURNING!" Kawamura said for emphasis. (Fired up, indeed.)

"She's up against a tough one, that's for sure…" Inoue said, his face serious. "Shigohara is no small fry."

"Eh?" The freshmen trio turned to face the brown-haired reporter. "What does that mean, Inoue-san?" Horio asked.

Instead of responding, Inoue flipped through a magazine in his hand. Locating the right page, he held it out towards them. Several of them crowded around. Kimiko had push through two layers of bodies in order to see. On the glossy page of the magazine was a girl holding up a trophy.

"Hey… that's the girl Oshiro is playing against!" Arai exclaimed, always good at stating the obvious.

"Shigohara… takes French junior tennis by storm…" Momoshiro read aloud. He glanced rapidly back and forth between the player on the court and the picture. "Th-that means…"

"Aa," Inui confirmed. "The girl that Oshiro-chan is playing against has won many junior tournaments in France. On top of that, she's already received professional training."

"EH?!" The freshmen trio exclaimed. "You mean to say… Oshiro-senpai is playing against a _future pro_?"

"Most likely," Inui said, flipping to a page on his notebook. "Shigohara Minako. Hyotei Gakuen third year. Her father is the CEO of Shigohara Enterprises, mother is international supermodel Shigohara Hana."

"M-model?" Momoshiro stammered.

"That's right. Shigohara herself has also appeared in several print advertisements. Let me see…" Inoue flipped back a few pages, searching. "Ah, here." He held up a page in the magazine that was an advertisement for a moderately well known perfume brand. The regulars stared as Shigohara's picture smiled seductively back at them.

"Wow…" Kikumaru said, eyes bulging out of his head. A faint blush tinted his cheeks.

Suzume flicked her eyes towards the magazine disinterestedly. "Che, what a Mary-Sue."

The redheaded boy stared at her blankly. "Mary-what nya?"

"Never mind."

Shigohara threw the ball and jumped up, her back arching gracefully.

_CRACK_!

Bullet-fast, the ball shot towards Chiharu, startling all of them.

She barely managed to evade it, instinctively stepping to the side as it rushed by her body.

"That's fast!" Katsuo cried, blinking his big eyes.

"And powerful…" Momoshiro said, noting the black mark that the ball left on the court.

Aiko frowned. That serve could compete with her own. Where was Shigohara hiding her muscles? She muttered something under her breath.

Kimiko's ears perked up at her mumbling. "What, Aiko-senpai?"

"She's twiggy. Where's all that strength coming from?"

The pink-headed second year looked back to Shigohara. The Hyotei player was actually closer in size and build to Akane, so 'twiggy' wasn't _quite_ the correct adjective… but then again, Aiko's muscles eclipsed them all. "She's not _that_ skinny."

"Twiggy," Aiko grunted stubbornly.

Kimiko couldn't help but giggle. "But she has muscles!" she said.

"Like tree branches."

The Momoshiro twins burst out laughing.

"It's true!" Aiko insisted, though now she was smiling.

"Aiko has a point," Reina affirmed, as Shigohara served another fast ball that Chiharu was unable to respond to. "With her bodily stalwartness, her gastrocnemius, deltoid and bicep brachii should be more preponderant."

"Considering her power, her muscles aren't as big as they should be," Kimiko told the others, nodding intelligently.

They stared and blinked for a moment. Even Suzume looked bemused.

"Wait…" Horio said. "Since when could _you _understand Watanabe-senpai?"

"I don't!" Kimiko responded sunnily. "But I guessed!"

"HOW?!"

She pointed, her lavender eyes jumping from Shigohara's quads to her biceps. "The Hyotei girl kind of has arms and legs like Akane-buchou, and Akane-buchou can't serve like that."

"Hey," Akane said in an annoyed tone.

"Yet," Kimiko hastily added, winking.

Akane forced a smile, but inside her mood was much more solemn. Her game against Fuuma had not gone ideally, which meant it the championship was up for grabs at this point. Hyotei was strong; even though her match had gone into a tiebreak, she suspected that Fuuma had not gone full out. And Shigohara was at the top of the pyramid. In a hierarchy system like Hyotei, there was no way that the Singles One slot was just handed to you.

She had to have _earned _it.

Akane couldn't stop a tremor that ran down her spine. '_Be strong_,' she told herself, clutching her sleeve. '_You've already let your team down as their captain. You need to stay positive for this last match._'

Easier said than done, now that Chiharu was down thirty-love and had yet to get a point.

The Hyotei girl leapt up again to serve.

_CRACK_!

Another ace.

Reina's dark eyes narrowed. "Her back."

"Eh?" the others said.

"I see!" Inui said in realization. "She's using the flexibility in her back to add power to the shot!"

Shigohara jumped again, her back forming a beautiful curve. It reminded Sayaka of when she used to use a plastic spoon to fling peas at her brother. The spoon would snap forward, and the peas would shoot around and ricochet off random things.

And then her parents would ground her for a week.

Chiharu caught this ball this time, however she missed the sweet spot on her racket. Her return failed to go over the net.

"Game, Hyotei! One game to love! Change court!"

"Not so cocky now, are you?" some of the Hyotei students jeered as Chiharu took off her blindfold to move to the other side of the court.

Coach Ryuzaki handed her a towel. "You got that last ball, so clearly you can return her serve."

"It's hard," Chiharu admitted, panting. That serve was quite a piece of work. It was beyond the fastest setting that she'd ever used on the ball machines.

"It's Hyotei," the coach responded promptly, eliciting a small smile from the blue-haired girl.

"Take a few steps back from the line," Inui suggested. "It'll buy you some more time to interpret the ball's path." He didn't mention that the most it would do was give her a fraction of a second.

Chiharu nodded and stepped back onto the court, securing her blindfold over her eyes.

There was no more advice to give, Inui concluded, because Chiharu was doing everything right. It wasn't her fault that Shigohara's skill level was superior. Seigaku didn't have anyone that could compete with her. Chiharu was their only chance.

**~x~**

Chiharu decided pretty quickly that she didn't like Shigohara.

(This can be said as somewhat of a rare occurrence, as there were few people that Chiharu genuinely didn't like.)

Shigohara wasn't flamboyant in arrogance like Atobe, nor patronizingly conceited like Oshitari. But she had the same icy pride; the same cold freeze in her eyes and frosty smile on her lips that were unspoken trademarks of Hyotei. Kings and queens of ice, each of them were, moving as if the rest of the world was beneath their notice.

_Haughty._ That was the right word to describe Shigohara.

Shigohara didn't even seem to acknowledge her as a player. She played as if this game was just a formality – it was just something to pass the time before she went to collect the trophy. She wasn't even _trying_.

With the blindfold over her eyes, Chiharu couldn't see Shigohara's expression, but she could feel her attitude through her shots. The passing shots that taunted her by being just beyond her reach. The speedy flat shots that laughed at her inability to react to them. That beast of a serve, imperiously shooting by. Every ball had a personality.

The worst part was that even with next to no effort, Shigohara was still winning easily. Chiharu's sharp returns hit the net, and her lobs went out of bounds.

Chiharu gritted her teeth, feeling frustrated and hurt and oddly irritated_._

'_You may not like me either, but I'll make sure that you respect me by the end of this match._'

She was going to force Shigohara to play her best.

**~x~**

"Good shot!" Sayaka shouted, seeing Chiharu put a speedy one cross-court. "She's not going to be able to get that…"

Suddenly-

-"What was _that?!_"

It happened so fast it looked like an illusion. The ball was to the corner; Shigohara wasn't going to make it, and then out of the blue, she was already _in front_ of the ball.

"What's with that movement?!" someone in the crowd shouted.

Shigohara could _slide._

Oh, that smooth movement was lovely, almost reminiscent of ice skating. She sprinted, gathered up speed, and let the momentum carry her.

"That's a pro-level move!" Oishi said in astonishment.

Inoue agreed, wide-eyed. "I never thought we would see this move in the high school circuit. Sliding is a type of movement that someone should strive for only when they've mastered all the basic footwork possible."

"Doesn't Ochibi do something like that for Drive B?" Kikumaru grabbed his kohai and pulled him over. "Nya, Ochibi! Show us how it's done!"

"Yadda."

"O-CH-BIIIII!"

"Why is a slide special, Inui-senpai?" Sakuno asked.

"You conserve energy because you're not actively moving," Inui explained. "Plus, it allows you to hit the ball while still in motion. You won't get as much power in it as you would with your feet firmly planted, but you can reach it faster."

"Faster than side-steps?" Kikumaru asked, dropping Ryoma. "I should learn it!"

"It's crucial for clay-court specialists," Inoue explained. "The soft, mobile soil creates opportunities for this kind of gliding motion. Players like Williams, Clijsters, Djokovic, and Nadal all know how to slide on clay."

Clay court like the Roland Garros. '_Shigohara Minako… from France, huh,_' Inoue thought to himself. '_No doubt she has been trained for the French Open.'_

But to be able to skid and slide like that on a hard court was a feat in itself.

"It's a good defense strategy," Kawamura said. "Extremely smart of her to use that movement to save stamina, especially if she's planning on an endurance battle."

Chiharu, meanwhile, couldn't exactly tell what Shigohara was doing, but she knew that every ball she hit kept coming back to her. She knew she would have to play better, run faster, and hit the ball harder if she wanted any chance to win.

'_You can't hold back.'_

**~x~**

"Game, Hyotei! Two games to love!"

"Mou!" Horio made a move as if to tear his hair out. "Hyotei broke her service game! This is bad!"

"Quiet, first year!" Kaidoh growled, causing him to cower.

"Why is Chiharu-senpai holding back?" Sayaka asked confusedly.

"She's not." Akane's mouth was a tight line.

"She's not on top of her game," Inui agreed gravely. "But she's not holding back either."

"The reason she's been able to keep up so far is because of her extra training," Akane told them seriously. "Just being able to interpret the shot isn't enough. She knows that her style means she has to be able to get to the ball. She's done a lot of work on endurance and strength."

Aiko thought about all the training she did, and how she still failed to defeat Chiharu. She quietly said, "Sometimes it just isn't enough, though."

"That slide is something else," Suzume said, partly for Chiharu's benefit. "We didn't even _know_ it could appear…"

The freshmen trio clutched the fence, staring at the game worriedly. "I didn't think… We'd see Oshiro-senpai struggle here…"

"This is Shigohara's style," Inui was perusing his notes, making annotations and corrections. "She plays an absolute defense. Oshiro will have to break it."

"She'll break through," Oishi tried to convince them. "She's biding her time."

As if hearing him, Chiharu suddenly quickened her steps into a burst of speed, stretching out her racket and slamming the ball down the line in a screaming winner.

"Thirty – fifteen!"

"Beautiful!" Inoue exclaimed. He glanced hurriedly at his partner. "Shiba, did you get that?"

"Got it!" she replied cheerfully, checking the digital screen on the back of her camera.

Chiharu clenched her fist slightly in a celebration of the point.

The crowd was dumbstruck. Murmurs circulated through the onlookers as they speculated on how Chiharu could detect where the ball was with a blindfold, let alone hit it back into the open court.

"It must be fake blindfold… Like a mask! Like the one Nightwing wears in comic books."

"Maybe she's blind to begin with so she's used to just relying on hearing…"

"Maybe…" Aiko grumbled, though she was smiling, "She's just a damn miracle."

**~x~**

"That was pretty impressive," Oshitari commented lightly, while Shishido made a non-committal noise. You had to be careful about complimenting the other team – there was a fine line between stating the facts and being disrespectful to your own team.

Mukahi mused, "Shigohara's serve is even better than Omae's, hmm."

Omae laughed. "Of course it is. She's the one who taught me how to serve like that."

"Please, she's better than all of you in everything," Atobe said, causing some of them to bristle. "Isn't that right, Kabaji?"

"Usu."

"She's not as fast as Matoko-senpai," Gamaro argued.

"Maybe not," Rie agreed, watching Shigohara sprint down the court for a volley. "But she has better footwork than me."

Shigohara's steps were languid and light, barely touching the court. Shishido muttered, "She has better footwork than all of you combined."

"Oshiro's starting to get the hang of it, though," Fuuma pointed out as the two players began a fast rally. "Shigohara's tennis style, that is."

"She's gifted," Rie said, running a hand through her white-blond hair. Anyone who could sense the ball with his or her eyes closed had _something_ special.

"But a gift can only get you so far…"

**~x~**

"Deuce!"

Chiharu tried to control her breathing, suddenly all too aware of the stamina that she was being robbed of. She signaled to Shigohara to wait for a second, while she untied and adjusted her sweat-soaked blindfold, trying to buy herself just a few more seconds.

Why was she tiring out so quickly?

She shook her head slightly and pulled the blindfold over her eyes once again. '_I need to take this game._' If she lost the next game, she would be down three-zero. And Chiharu knew she wasn't like Sayaka; she couldn't recover in a heartbeat like the tall second year could. She would have to just grit her teeth and fight through.

"Focus," she whispered to herself, the word almost lost in her breaths. "Focus."

This point was too important.

_CRACK!_

Shigohara's serve exploded in her vision like a balloon filled with bright green paint. '_Left corner_,' she thought, her feet already sprinting in that direction. She planted her feet firmly, pulled her racket back, and swung – really _swung._

BAM.

Her shot rocketed to the edge of the court and hit the wire fence with a rattle. '_Please, let it be in!_' she prayed, fingers going to pull down her blindfold. It was too close for her to tell.

"Advantage, Seigaku's Oshiro!"

She allowed herself to relax for a brief moment, then remembered that she had to take one more to secure the game. Her legs were aching. '_One more point. Come on. Hang on. Then you can rest._'

That was a lie. There was no time to rest. But she needed this game, she needed it so badly. Push a little more, push a little more, she could do this, come on, she could win…

_CRACK!_

The serve came, hard and fast. She summoned enough strength to lunge for the ball, tipping it over the net just so.

"Game, Seigaku! Two games to one!" The announcer's call was music to her ears.

"Yes!" Sayaka cheered, pumping her fist high in the air. "WHOO! Go Chiharu-senpai!"

Shigohara, however, just raised her eyebrows fractionally in a very Tezuka-like manner. Inui frowned. "Hyotei doesn't look worried."

"Chiharu-san isn't happy either…" Izumi mentioned, noticing the strained expression on the blue-haired girl's face.

The freshmen trio and Tomoka paused in their cheering. "What? But she just won a game!"

"Her style isn't working," Akane said. "Chiharu's playing her hardest, but it's not having the same affect on Shigohara as it did on Aiko or Matsuyama from Fudomine. And she's tiring out." '_You can't rely on short bursts of sudden energy like that._'

Aiko nodded quietly. '_Chiharu's style… She knew exactly where the ball was going to be. In contrast, you had no frickin' idea where she was going to hit it._'

"The strong part about Chiharu's style is that not only can she predict the path of the ball," Inui said, watching Chiharu react immediately to a crosscourt shot. "But she relies on pure impulse to return it. So her opponent has no cues of where the ball is going to land."

"And the problem with that is, if your opponent is faster than you, stronger than you, and just _better_…" Akane's eyes hardened. "It doesn't matter where you hit it. They'll get there anyway."

Shigohara hit deep into the court, to the left and then left again, effectively cornering Chiharu. In a flash, she whipped a stunning backhand to the right – Chiharu could've grown wheels on the bottom of her feet and she still wouldn't have made it.

"The brown-haired nee-chan isn't bad," Ryoma murmured, pulling the lid of his cap up.

"Tch. She's more than 'not bad'," Suzume scoffed, almost a little defensively.

"She's completely overpowering Chiharu," Reina agreed, aptly sensing that Akane would not appreciate extra vocabulary in this situation.

"B-but Oshiro-senpai got a game!" Horio protested. "Why is it…"

This was the difference between an amateur player with two years of experience, and the seasoned players. Their eyes catch on different things. They notice the details.

"Look how… how… _easy_ it is for Shigohara," Izumi said unexpectedly, in a voice that soft but reverent. "It's just so easy for her."

Fuji blinked at her odd word choice. Yet, Izumi may have grasped something here. The way Shigohara covered the court was smooth and seamless. The way she set up plays and executed them was done without any visible effort. She looked so at ease, so…

"Comfortable," he and Izumi both said at the same time. They exchanged a glance; Fuji smiled and she tried not to.

"Ah! She's going up to the net!" Kikumaru shouted, regaining their attention.

Shigohara rushed the net, pushing Chiharu farther and farther back. Aiko made a noise of appreciation. This girl knew definitely knew what she was doing. Going closer to the net meant Chiharu had less time to react to the sound of the shot. It's what Aiko did when she played against Chiharu that one time.

(Aiko was also in the midst of thinking of a nickname for this cocky, pretentious Hyotei girl. 'Fugly Bitch' had a nice ring to it.)

Hearing the footsteps, Chiharu instinctively hit a shot towards the sound.

"Good shot," Tezuka said with approval. "Right at the opponents feet, to get them off balance."

"This is her chance!" Shiba said, lifting her camera.

But Shigohara didn't even falter, much less get off balance. She simply did neat little sidestep, giving herself plenty of time, and hit a short forehand with a large amount of sidespin.

Chiharu ran and dove for it, but all of a sudden the ball changed course on the bounce. Her knees and arms scraped against the ground painfully as she fell. She hit the ground with her fist in frustration.

'_This isn't how it's supposed to be._'

Her style was supposed to work everywhere. People shouldn't be able to just.., _overcome_ it.

It started when she was in elementary school. P.E had several different units, and one of them was tennis. Back then, Chiharu didn't show any particular talent for anything.

Her P.E teacher put her on the other side of the net and served lightly to her, just as she did for all her other students. Chiharu swung half-heartedly, and her footwork was sloppy.

But the instant the racket touched the ball, she _moved_.

Her teacher called her father. "_Your daughter has talent. She deserves to be coached separately in tennis_."

'_Tennis sense,' _is what her teacher called it. '_She has amazing tennis sense._'

Her father found her a coach that had already seen many a child prodigy come and go. He was no fool; he knew that Chiharu's tennis sense was nothing extraordinary. For some reason or the other, he agreed to continue coaching her.

What he discovered was Chiharu had a bizarre fascination for sounds.

Sometimes, when they were practicing certain shots, she would just cock her head slightly to the side, clearly listening for something. _"What?"_ he had said_. "You expecting it to sing or something?"_

"_The sounds… they're different."_

Drop shot. Lob. Volley. Smash. _"Of course they're different._"

She just shrugged her little shoulders and continued listening.

Flat shot. Topspin. Side-spin. When she could tell those sounds apart, he was mildly impressed.

Left. Right. Baseline. Corner. When she could tell _those_ sounds apart, he was shocked speechless.

He was so shocked that he wanted her to play with her eyes closed. "_Just try it_," he said, still skeptical that her hearing was so acute. He needed to see proof.

And he did get proof. Chiharu played just was well with her eyes closed as she did with them open. With one extra catch.

He was running up to hit a volley. The moment she heard it, she moved in the right position. He was sure she was going to hit a passing shot; it's what he coached her to do.

Instead, she whipped it right towards his face.

At that moment, he realized. '_She's not thinking when her eyes are closed. It's just how she feels. She'll hit it wherever she wants._' This defied all logic, but with her reaction time, it worked. Add that to the unpredictability of her shots, and you had a gold mine.

"_This is your greatest weapon,"_ he had told her. "_Use it._"

Now, with someone so much better than she was, Chiharu was regretting taking her coach's advice.

**~x~**

Shigohara was beautiful.

There was simply no other way to describe it. It was in the way she moved. The way her legs slid against each other as she crossed the court for a return, the way her arms swung wide to hit a spectacular forehand, the way her shiny brown hair flowed out behind her. Usually, Shiba would have to take hundreds of pictures to get _one _good enough to make it into the magazine. But now, every picture that she took was so stunning, it looked like Shigohara was subconsciously posing for it.

_Snap_. Perfect picture. _Snap_. Perfect picture.

The faint smile on her lips, the sparkle in her eyes, even the beads of sweat that glistened on her skin… Something about her was incredibly graceful and formidable at the same time. Like a smooth river with a raging undercurrent, there was an unspoken force writhing powerfully beneath the surface.

With her, tennis was more than a sport. It was an art.

She moved like the water.

"She dances," Izumi suddenly said, eyes narrowed.

Everyone glanced at her, surprised. "Eh?"

"She dances," Izumi repeated. "That kind of movement isn't something just anyone can do."

"Morioka-san may have a point there…" Inui considered thoughtfully. Shigohara didn't use actual dance movements on the court like Izumi did. Rather, her background emerged in her elongated steps and her sense of balance.

And that _slide._ That was nothing short of magnificent.

Inui continued, "She certainly has a large amount of stamina, not to mention that flexibility in her back. Seventy-seven percent chance… ballet."

"Ballet?" Kaidoh said disbelievingly.

"Really?" Horio asked, obviously disappointed.

"Yeah," Momoshiro joined in, laughing uncomfortably. "Dancing isn't really a sport…" This earned him a whack on the head from his twin. "What was that for?! I never said _gymnastics_ wasn't a sport!"

"If you said that I would've aimed for your _face._"

Izumi shifted slightly, which was her only sign of irritation. "Ballet dancers _are_ athletes."

"Compared to tennis players?" Momoshiro scoffed, not seeing the warning glances that Sayaka shot him.

Izumi stared ahead. "Aspiring ballerinas train more hours a day than Olympic runners."

That got his attention. "What? Are you serious?"

She tilted her head in a nod.

"Dancers typically have a lot of stamina," Inui added. "Especially ballet dancers."

Kaidoh looked at him questioningly. "Why is that, senpai?" He was particularly proud of his own endurance. He ran marathons and did hundreds of sit-ups for that; his training was as harsh and brutal as it could get. So how was it that prancing around on a stage could also give someone a lot of stamina?

Inui tapped his pencil against his notebook, constructing his response. "In running, your legs switch off, so you get breaks and pauses in the middle. Your energy is used more efficiently. In dancing, often times you have to stretch every muscle to its limit in order to hold a certain position. It's especially straining for ballet dancers who dance _en pointe_, which is on their toes."

"Morioka-senpai, do you dance _en pointe_?" Katsuo inquired politely.

She shifted slightly again. "I tried it, but it wasn't my favorite. Everything is too controlled, too rigid, and…" Her voice trailed off, dark eyes following Shigohara's movements, so sharp and precise.

"Perfect," she finally breathed, her voice becoming whisper-soft. "It's too perfect."

Looking at Shigohara, they knew she was right.

**~x~**

"Game, Hyotei! Four games to one! Change court!"

Shigohara exhaled lightly and went to the bench.

"You're playing wonderfully today, Shigohara," Oshitari said, leaning over the railing. His eyes were twinkling. "It makes me wonder why we ever broke up."

She flicked her hair behind her with a _swoosh_. "Oshitari, we broke up because I _dumped_ you."

He examined his fingernails. "Yes, well, I choose not to remember that particular detail."

**~x~**

Seated on the bench, Chiharu took a breath. Then another in quick succession. Then another. And another.

These breaths weren't ones of exhaustion. They were sharp. Urgent.

Coach Ryuzaki gave her an alarmed look. "Are you okay?"

Oishi took a step towards her, his features etched with worry. "Is she hyperventilating? We need to get her a paper bag or something!"

A hand on his shoulder stopped him. "It's fine," Akane reassured him. "Give her a moment."

"But—"

"Just a moment," Akane said. "Trust me."

It was clear that Akane knew her better than he did. A minute later, he was stunned at the change in Chiharu. Her eyes were cold and calm, her jaw was locked. She was completely composed.

"Wh-… how?" was all he said.

"Remember how Chiharu's dad works for the military?" Kimiko chimed in with a grin. "He taught her how to calm herself in ten seconds! Y'know, 'cause in the army, ten seconds is like life or death."

Tezuka watched her carefully.

_This_ was the Chiharu that stood a chance.

**~x~**

"Three games down…" Reina said to no one in particular. Chiharu's percentage of winning, which wasn't too high to begin with, was dwindling fast. Though, Reina had yet to calculate Chiharu's new mentality. "Three games down. That's not good."

"She's doing better than I did." A voice came from behind them. Several of them turned around.

"Saki-senpai!" Suzume exclaimed.

The Fudomine girl waved a hand to greet some of them, then held her fist out to Suzume. When the latter just stared at it blankly, Sakiko said, "What? Forgot how to fist-bump? Work with me here."

"Heh." She punched at her fist. "Sorry. It's weird having the old you back." She frowned. "Well, the new-old you, I guess. The better, improved Saki-senpai."

Sakiko gave her a weird look. "…right. Okay."

"So you got any advice for how to beat this girl?" Sayaka asked.

She smiled thinly. "Did you not hear about my match? She _thrashed_ me."

Sayaka blanched; she'd forgotten. "Sorry. Meant no disrespect, senpai."

"Apology accepted," Sakiko said simply.

"Are you here to watch us avenge Fudomine?" Momoshiro asked.

"Hardly. We might be out of the tournament for now, but we're taking the consolation match." Her tone was firm and confident. "I'm actually here to see how well you guys do against them."

Suzume laughed scornfully. "You are the worst spy in the world."

"Why is that?"

She made a vague gesture at the Fudomine girl. "First of all, your _hair._" Sakiko's hair, as usual, was bright white and tumbled to below her knees in two pigtails. "And I don't think spies typically announce themselves to the people they're spying on."

Sakiko shrugged a little. "It's not as if I'm the only one checking out the competition." She turned her gaze back, towards the stands. The rest of her team followed her eyes. Sure enough, there were two girls at the top, watching the game intently.

The girls didn't recognize the uniforms, but Inui supplied the name, "Rikkaidai Fuzoku Chuu."

Inoue looked up, his curiosity tickled. "Girls from Rikkaidai?" He turned to his partner. "Shiba, we should pay them a visit soon."

"They have the best tennis team in the nation," Inui said. "For the boys, at least. I'm sure the girls won't be an exception either."

"They're probably here to spy on Shigohara too. Her reputation has spread." Here Sakiko let out a cross between a sigh and a bitter laugh, clearly remembering how poorly her game went. "Do you know what they call her? _Hades._"

"_HADES_?!"

"King of the Underworld?"

Fuji ran his eyes over the Hyotei girl – her glossy hair, her sculpted features. He chuckled. "Not the most flattering nickname."

"Che," Ryoma pulled down his cap, mumbling. "What is with these Greek mythology allusions? First Hermes, and now Hades. Tennis is tennis."

Suzume snorted. "They sure act like they're gods."

"Mythology is one of the classes taught at Hyotei," Sakiko told them, remembering the information from the pamphlet she got when they accepted her transfer application. "They all have nicknames. That girl, Fuuma? She's Athena."

"Makes sense," Akane said begrudgingly. "She's sure smart enough."

"And Rie is Hermes…" Inui jotted it down. "So Ayumi would be…"

"Aphrodite?" Kimiko guessed, thinking of her womanly curves. '_Big boobs!_'

"No," Izumi said quietly, remembering her precision and her aim. "Artemis."

"Goddess of the hunt. Nice," Inui said. "So, why Hades for Shigohara?"

At this, Sakiko frowned. "I'm not sure. Her style is so defensive. You can't get a ball past her. Maybe it's like she's guarding something. After all, Hades is the gatekeeper for the dead."

Inui pondered this. Something was missing. "Hades," he repeated to himself. "Hades."

"To be honest," Aiko muttered under her breath in English. "I prefer '_Fugly bitch.'_"

Ryoma hid his laughter behind his hand.

**~x~**

Chiharu managed to put up a fight in the next rally. It was as if something clicked within her. She stayed at the baseline, and she didn't try to rush the game. She was too tired to attempt a big break-through anyways. She was playing at Shigohara's rhythm, and playing well.

She'd even anticipated Shigohara's slide. When it came, she backed away, found the ball, and returned it with caution. '_Just assume she can get any ball._'

Shigohara played a little like Izumi (when the latter wasn't using dance moves), Chiharu found. She didn't try to score points. She just refused to let a ball pass her. It was full on defense.

Whereas Chiharu's own style was just to get the ball to the other side of the court one more time. They were so different, and yet similar at the same time.

Maybe that's why playing at Shigohara's pace felt like playing at her own pace. Either way, she was starting to get the hang of it. She could do it. She could win.

That's when the grunting started.

**~x~**

'_Grunt'_ might be too vulgar of a word to describe the noises that Shigohara was spewing. In actuality, it wasn't so much of a grunt as a half-yell, half-cry.

It definitely wasn't as rough or low as the noises that Aiko made when she was playing. Or Suzume, who occasionally spat out a curse word when she was cranking out a winner. In fact, these sounds of exertion might be the most lady-like ones that Chiharu has ever heard.

But what it did do was throw in another sound that muddled the rest.

"Hyaa!"

The ball landed behind her, instead of in front where she predicted.

"Fifteen-all!"

She blinked from behind her blindfold, unable to hear sound of impact on the racket clearly. Shigohara's grunts were covering up the sounds of the ball hitting the racket.

"Hyaa!"

"Thirty-fifteen!"

This time, it had been a lob. She thought it was a drop shot.

"Cheap trick," Kaidoh growled.

"Yeah! What's with those noises!" Kikumaru complained.

"She's messing up Oshiro's interpretation of the ball," Fuji said, eyes open. "That's her plan."

"I-is that allowed?" Sakuno asked timidly.

"It's controversial," Inui explained. "In professional circuit, players like Maria Sharapova and Michelle Larcher de Brito have signature 'grunts.' There was even an incident where Sharapova was asked by the umpire to tone down the sound of her grunt. It drowns out the sound of the ball leaving the grunter's racket."

"That's dirty!" Sayaka said.

Akane said nothing. There was nothing wrong with taking an opponent's weakness and exploiting it. There was certainly nothing wrong with using their strength to your advantage.

The Hyotei students taunted her. "Guess you can't use your special ability now!" "What's wrong, miracle? Why don't you synesthete your way out of this?"

It's not like being a synesthete was easy, she thought. When she was younger, she was immediately labeled as 'different.' People didn't understand what she meant when the sounds had colors, or the "cold sweetness" she tasted in the letter "B" or the "inkiness" in "J". She'd been diagnosed with everything from childhood schizophrenia to autism.

Her father and her mother, thank god, never accepted the diagnosis. "_There is nothing wrong with my daughter!" _herfather would yell and storm out. Then her mom would have to apologize to the offended nurse or doctor, but gently explain that she also disagreed with their views, that there was _no way_ her daughter was disturbed.

As a last attempt, they went to see a children's neurobiologist in the Tsuchiya hospital. A series of tests and exams later, the doctor emerged with a big smile on his face. "_There is nothing wrong with your daughter," _he told the worried parents. "_In fact, she's very special. She has a rare gift._"

A rare gift that was the cause of her downfall, Chiharu thought with a grimace.

She would have to try to separate the sounds. That was the only way it would work.

"Hyaa!" "_pok."_

'_Lob_?' She sprinted for the baseline, hearing the shot bounce. At least she could still hear the shot bounce. She hit it back to the center.

"Hyaa!" "_pok._"

'_Drop shot_.' She raced forward, knowing that she could make it, she _would_ make it, she _had to make it._

"WATCH OUT!"

Too late, she heard the shot whizzing towards her at an alarming speed. '_Oh god! It wasn't a drop shot?!_'

She stopped short, the ball cutting across her face. The pain exploded in red sparks across her vision. She fell backwards, suddenly blinded by the light as her blindfold drifted to the ground beside her, the cloth ripped into two.

She winced, in part from the pain on the side of her face and in part from the sudden brightness. Her hand immediately went to her temple, where the ball had struck her. Her fingers came back stained with red.

A dark, blurry figure approached the net. "Sorry about that," Shigohara said, not sounding sorry at all. "With your synesthesia, I thought you could tell the difference between a drop shot and a swinging volley."

Chiharu glared at her, frustrated and annoyed and… _angry._

The brunette smirked and coughed lightly, presumably to clear her throat for more grunts.

"Yo, Hyotei-san!" Suzume called from the sidelines.

Shigohara didn't respond, but turned towards the second year with a raised eyebrow.

"Stop making sex noises."

While there were sounds of indignation from the Hyotei crowds (and Oishi gasping at Suzume's brazenness) Atobe stunned all of them by randomly bursting out into raucous laughter. "HAHAHAHA!"

'_Clever_,' Inui thought to himself. '_It was more than just a taunt; it was to make Shigohara self-conscious about her grunting._' Suzume knew how to play a mental game too, he noted carefully.

Shigohara, however, had more than just flawless footwork and incredible strength. She also had a tough, unbreakable mentality. Without even a change in her smug expression, she just turned to Atobe (who was still laughing), quirked a brow, and said, "Does the idea excite you, Atobe?"

"HA. Don't get ahead of yourself, Shigohara."

**~x~**

"Maybe you should say something to her, Tezuka," Fuji's voice floated into his ear, deceptively lighthearted and casual. "To encourage her."

"No." His reply was short.

"Aww, don't be such a spoilsport. I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

"I won't be a distraction."

'_You're always a distraction,' _he thought. "Suit yourself," he said instead.

**~x~**

"Come to think of it…" Oshitari murmured as the game continued. "I have yet to see Minako-chan go for a smash."

Gamaro let out a short bark of laughter. "Shigohara doesn't smash."

Several of the boys turned to them in shock. "Not smash?" Choutarou echoed. "How can you decide not to smash in a tennis game?"

Omae rolled her eyes. "She probably thinks no one around here is worthy of her smashes."

Ayumi shrugged. "I think she just prefers groundstrokes and swinging volleys."

"Bu-but a smash!" Choutarou said in disbelief. "It's an essential part of tennis… I don't see how…"

"Oh, trust me, she _knows _how to smash," Fuuma interjected. "She doesn't like to. It's part of her play style. She doesn't go for big winners. She doesn't use special techniques.

"So maybe you haven't seen Shigohara smash," Her tone was different, more edged now. "But have you ever seen her make a single error?"

**~x~**

With a well-aimed backhand, Shigohara slammed the ball into the far end of the court.

"Game, Hyotei! Five games to one!"

The Seigaku team fell silent. There wasn't much to be done anymore.

Most of them were thinking the same thing.

It was time to pray for a miracle.

**~x~**

'_Ten seconds_,' Chiharu told herself. Just like her father used to tell her. She would only allow herself ten seconds of weakness, ten seconds of fear. '_Because any more than that is a waste of time and mental energy._

'_But you're broken already, aren't you, broken broken _broken—'

'_Ten seconds. Ten seconds. Count them, Chiharu._' She clenched her teeth together to stop her lips from trembling as Coach Ryuzaki patched up the cut on her face. '_Count them._'

Ten.

'_She's so strong._'

Nine.

'_I'm going to lose._'

'_I can't lose._'

Eight.

'_Akane will be so disappointed._'

'_Tezuka-san will be disappointed too._'

Seven.

'_I don't have any strength left._'

Hot tears of frustration formed in her eyes. She tried to blink them back desperately.

Six.

Oh god, she couldn't do this. She couldn't, she just _couldn't_, she couldn'tcouldn't_couldn't, _stop_stop_**stop**, just make it stop, please don't let her fall to pieces out there.

Five.

The tears were rolling down her cheeks now, despite how tightly she was squeezing her eyes shut. Coach Ryuzaki put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her silently.

'_Ohgodohgod I can't do this._'

"Is she…?" Oishi voiced concernedly.

Four.

'_What happens when being a miracle isn't enough?_'

Three.

'_Stop being pathetic._'

Breathe, breathe, breathe.

'_You need to get yourself together.'_

She swiped the sleeve of her jersey across her eyes.

Two.

'_They're counting on you._'

One.

Her time was up.

She straightened her shoulders and took one more drink of water. Coach Ryuzaki gave her shoulder one last squeeze. She tried to smile back reassuringly, but her lips would not curve up.

"Ne."

Chiharu suddenly jerked up at the voice coming from right by her ear, whipping her head around. "Echizen-kun!"

Ryoma had draped himself over the back of the bench, resting his arms on it thoughtfully.

"Ne, Oshiro-senpai," he murmured, staring at some nondescript point in the distance. "You're really good at reading people, right?"

"E-eh?"

"Oi! Echizen!" Momoshiro was yelling from behind the banister. "You aren't supposed to be there!"

"Che, fine." He climbed back over the banister, earning him a _bonk_ on the head from his senpai and a not-really-strict reprimand from Oishi.

Chiharu stared his back strangely. '_Did he come over here just to say that?_'

It was such a random comment. She tried to brush it off.

' _"You're really good at reading people, right?" _'

'_Not really_,' she thought. Reading people was more of Akane's thing. She could time her shots according to an opponent's emotions. Chiharu doubted she'd ever be able to read someone so accurately.

But at the same time, she knew she was unusually perceptive. Her hypersensitivity wasn't just limited to sounds. Akane used to tell her that she had a 'sad people' radar, instantly picking up on which people were unhappy and going to cheer them up.

What was it, however? It wasn't like she was actively searching people's faces for emotional cues. It was just… instinctive. She did it without thinking.

'_Like my tennis_.'

As she stepped up to the service line and retied her broken blindfold, his words echoed in her head.

' "_You're really good at reading people, right?"_ '

"Right…" she whispered, frowning. "Right… maybe."

At that moment, she heard it – Ryoma's unspoken words and her own question.

'_Then why are you limiting yourself?_'

Her hands rested on her blindfold, wondering, hesitating…

'_Listen…_'

Shigohara breathing, in and out.

'_Feel…_'

The balls vibrations rippling outwards as she bounced it, getting ready to serve.

With one hand, she undid her blindfold, letting it unravel in the wind. Her eyes were still closed. She let go, the blindfold flying off like fragments of ribbon, twisting and dancing through the air.

'_Sharpen every single sense. _

'_Open all your pores_.

'_Read her entirety._

'_Feel everything, Chiharu. Do what you do best._'

She opened her eyes. Grabbed the ball. Tossed it up. Hit it.

The return ace crackled by her.

"Love – fifteen!"

She breathed, in and out. Tossed the ball up. Hit it.

The ball went whistling to the far corner.

"Love – thirty!"

"Oi, why isn't she moving?" Momoshiro asked. "She's not even—"

Akane held up a hand to shush him. "Stop. She's thinking."

_Thinking._ The tip of Inui's pencil broke. '_Chiharu's style is all about 'not thinking.' What is she up to?_'

Breathe. In. Out. Toss the ball up. Hit it.

The return shot blazed a path down the line, not even two strides from her left.

"Love – forty!"

_Break point._

She was backed into a corner, into a wall, a place where she'd never been before. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Her father's voice was the only thing she could hear.

"_When the struggle seems hopeless, that's when it actually begins."_

"Right…" she whispered. "I get it. I get it now."

And that's when she started to glow.

**~x~**

Shigohara had no idea how it happened. One second, it was her match point and she would win, and the next, her opponent's body was enveloped in something wispy and sparkling, as soft as an angel's breath and as clear-blue as glass.

"What on _earth_—"

Her intake of breath. Her hesitation. Chiharu sensed it. Saw it. Felt it in tips of her fingers and the edges of her brain. Before Shigohara could react, she put an ace beyond her, the shot racing to the edge.

"Fifteen-forty!"

Shigohara had seen _Muga no Kyochi _once, but this wasn't it. The aura was thinner, almost like a mirage or a heat wave, shimmering and bending the air around.

There was a _BANG_ from next to her. Chiharu had served another ace.

"Thirty-forty!"

'_What… _is _this?_'

It was like Chiharu was a magnetic force, drawing in energy from around her. She was utterly and completely connected to the environment. Her eyes burned from within, seeing everything. Nothing escaped her gaze. Nothing escaped her senses.

(_Like Argus, like Hera's guard, with eyes all over his body, he sees everything, she sees everything, you can't hide and you can't run—_)

"_Z-zanshin_…" Hiyoshi said in awe, his eyes recognizing the stance and the unmistakable aura.

"_Zanshin_…" Kawamura said. "It's _Zanshin_."

Suzume's eyes were wide. She knew what it was; she'd seen it before. "Chiharu-senpai… how did you…"

"What's going on?!" Horio cried. "Someone, explain it to me!"

"Yeah, I would like to know too!" Kikumaru jumped in.

"_Zanshin_…" Inui explained. "It can be called 'remaining spirit'. It's a state in martial arts, a state of total awareness."

Tezuka knew of it too. Achieving this was no easy feat. You had to be utterly calm and in control of yourself. Chiharu had practiced underneath a blindfold for so long that all her senses have become amazingly acute — every shot, every bounce, every breath was within the realm of her notice. '_Well done. Well done, Chiharu._'

Shigohara slid to the left, chasing a volley. The momentum carried her a little far. Immediately Chiharu put a shot to the right, straight to the corner, bypassing her.

"The best soldiers are supposed to have _Zanshin_…" Suzume said. Her brother Ren could seldom go into this state in the dojo. "Maybe with her father being in the military…"

Fuji smiled. "There's an old samurai saying, '_When the battle is over, tighten your chin-strap_.' It's about being ready for another attack, huh."

As Shigohara ran the front, Chiharu lobbed the ball up, way over her head. It landed flawlessly at the baseline.

"In _kyuudo_," Inui said, remembering their archery lesson. "It's the moment of peace after the release of the arrow. Isn't that right, Morioka?"

"It's more than that," Izumi said softly in response. "It's not just martial arts state. It is _now_. In taking a step, it is the weight rolling smoothly and the next step arising.

"In breathing in completely, it is this breath. In breathing out completely, it is this breath. In life, it is this life.

"It's a mirror," Izumi finally said. "Always ready to reflect whatever you show it."

And ready, Chiharu was. No matter where Shigohara hit the ball, she knew where it was going to land. The feeling. It was in the air. It was in the ground. She could feel the vibration tingling on her skin.

On the Hyotei side, Hiyoshi continued, "It means going beyond technique, because you can't force the situation to conform to the technique," his eyes on Shigohara, who had just missed a shot. "The angle of the strike and the force of the strike must be adjusted immediately to your opponent."

Hiyoshi remembered sitting and having tea with his kobujustsu sensei. His sensei stopped mid-sentence, without turning his head, reached for something beside him. "Ah, a young cockroach," he said, holding it out to Hiyoshi before letting it free.

After he got over his disgust (cockroaches were _gross_) Hiyoshi was stunned that his sensei could be completely aware of the presence of something as miniscule as an insect.

_Zanshin_ was the pinnacle of martial arts training.

His eyes narrowed. '_Shigohara-senpai, what are you going to do?_'

**~x~**

'_This isn't happening!_'

Again, and again, Chiharu saw through her. Through her plays, through her game.

Shigohara chased the ball down. The court seemed to expand underneath her feet as she ran.

'_I won't let her beat me!_'

She hit the ball to the end, so close to the edge that half the crowd caught its breath. Chiharu reached it and returned it to her end.

'_I have to win!'_

She jumped forward, swinging with all her might. The ball stretched the gut in her racket and flew towards the other court like a missile.

Abruptly, her shot hit the net, causing it to shift up and down slightly.

Shigohara stared at it like it was a foreign object, unable to comprehend what just happened.

The Hyotei students started murmuring.

"N-no way…"

"Shigohara-senpai… _missed_?"

"I've never seen her do that before…"

Something wasn't right. She couldn't explain how she suddenly felt hollow, like a vital piece of her was missing.

Then she realized.

It was her first error of the season.

Her impeccable, _perfect_ record was destroyed.

The ball came to her side again, and she sent it back in a volley. When it neared the net, she couldn't help but flinch, even though it went over with no contact.

But Chiharu saw the momentary weakness in the Hyotei player, she saw her chance and drove the volley home.

"Game, Seigaku! Five games all!"

The old Chiharu played a peaceful, forgiving game. She hit the ball wherever she felt like hitting it, staying true to the basic foundation of tennis: you can win if you just hit the ball to the other side one more time. She never watched the other side of the net. If her opponents couldn't keep up, that was entirely their fault.

Her style might have not been born from synesthesia, Akane considered. It may have arisen from her sweet-tempered personality instead. To play her own game, with no ill-intent directed towards her opponent, with no attempt to break them or to take advantage of their shortcomings.

This new style was something else entirely. Taking in every element of the game, absorbing every movement and motion from your opponent, finding that opening and attacking it. There was nothing merciful about that.

Ironically, this style was probably the one Chiharu was best at.

Suzume smirked. "And how do you destroy a queen of ice?" She pressed the button on her lighter, the flame dancing in her eyes. "With fire."

**~x~**

_This isn't like you…_' Shigohara thought, panting. '_Attempting winners, using up your stamina, making risky moves…_ _that's not who you are._'

'_You were supposed to have a perfect record. No errors._'

She eyed Chiharu furiously. 'She_ took that away from you._' Her hand tightened around her racket. '_You should make her pay._'

That second the shot hit the net, something had ended.

But…

At the same time there was a huge relief, as if something heavy and giant was taken off her back.

"I don't have a perfect record anymore," she murmured to herself, finally coming to terms with it. She was free. A tiny smile grew until it blossomed into a full-on smirk. '_Screw it. I can play however the hell I want now._'

**~x~**

She started hitting even harder and sliding even faster, sacrificing aim and balance for power and speed.

Chiharu pinpointed a shot to the left corner. Shigohara skidded so quickly that sparks seemed to shoot from the bottoms of her shoes.

The blue-haired girl hit a short volley. Shigohara charged like a bull and grounded it into the baseline.

"Oi… is it just me, or is that girl getting a lot more reckless now?" Momoshiro asked, blinking perplexedly at the Hyotei girl's sudden ferocity.

As if to prove his point, Shigohara rushed to the front, chasing a well-placed drop shot. '_I have to get this!_' Chiharu's shots much more precise now, and her timing was much better than before. The brown-haired girl ran as fast as she could, her legs lunging into a slide to catch the ball. The momentum was too great. Her legs slid apart into a clean split.

The crowd gasped in pain. Some of them cringed.

"Thirty-all!"

Shigohara got up from her lithe position without even batting an eyelash. In fact, she smiled at the Hyotei spectators and did a little curtsy.

"Oh? Now this is a new side of Shigohara," Atobe said, amused. "Who knew she had this in her?"

When she dashed for the net again, Chiharu lobbed it behind her.

The lob went high.

Shigohara locked her eyes onto it, hesitating for the briefest moment.

And then she jumped.

"Shigohara's _smashing?!_" Omae rose to her feet. "No way!"

And in that moment they knew why she had sealed her smash and locked it up tight, as it was an explosion of power with a vicious topspin that sliced and skidded and twisted around the court like a serpent. There was nothing safe or defensive about that smash – it defied her style completely.

And Fuuma smiled.

For the loyal gatekeeper of the underworld had a set of fangs, and she knew how to use them.

**~x~**

"6 games all! Tiebreak!"

"They're both not giving in!" Kawamura said.

"I can't believe it's gone this far…" Shishido said.

Suzume grinned knowingly. "You see?" she said to no one in particular. "_This_ is why I have never been able to beat Chiharu-senpai. When you think you've got her, she pulls out something new."

Aiko gaped at the game. The fact that Chiharu managed to continue playing to this point stunned and impressed her. '_She had more endurance than any of us knew, than any of us gave her credit for._'

But even she had a limit. When Shigohara hit another forehand to her, her legs almost gave out. She stumbled forward, barely managing to lob the ball up.

Shigohara jumped up again, her body outstretched and her arm high above her head.

And for a second, Chiharu caught a glimpse of a girl, a girl that was under too much pressure and scrutiny, a girl that lived in a world with unattainable standards, where nothing was good enough and everything had to be perfect.

"—_was an abysmal performance, your pirouettes have to be perfect—"_

"—_French Open wouldn't take you likes this, your defense has to be perfect—"_

"—_ninety-seven is unacceptable, your grades have to be perfect—"_

Because this smash was as ugly as it was beautiful, writhing and gnawing at the concrete, like it had claws of its own, like it was borne from the fires of the Underworld itself. It was a stark contrast to everything else in her play style, to everything else in her ordered and rigid life.

This wild monster of a shot that ripped and tore through the air just might be her escape, her shred of defiance.

Chiharu sprinted for it, intending to return it to Shigohara's open side. Not even a slide would save her this point. She readied her racket, prepar—

The aura broke.

Her eyes were suddenly wide and disoriented as she dropped to the ground, panting, her racket clattering and the ball falling next to her.

"What?"

"Chiharu!" Akane cried.

"Chiharu-senpai!" Sakuno yelped.

"The aura…" Fuji said, his eyes open. "She lost it."

"It's impossible keep that kind of intense focus for too long," Tezuka said. "It'll drain all of your stamina."

Kimiko clung onto Aiko. "This is scary! Chiharu-senpai has no energy left for the game!"

But Shigohara was panting too, torrents of sweat running down her toned body. Chiharu wasn't alone. They were both at the end of the rope.

Their eyes met.

In that instant they both knew that at this point, this battle was beyond strength, endurance, and technique. It would come down to who wanted it more.

_Let the real struggle begin._

Chiharu smiled, a smile that was almost a smirk. "Let's do this." Through sheer willpower, she grabbed her racket and forced herself to her feet.

Their game went on.

Chiharu could no longer hear the sounds the ball was making. She couldn't hear the scores the referee was shouting. She couldn't hear her team cheering, even though she knew they were. All she could hear was the pounding in her ears, like a war drum. She couldn't feel her arms, her legs. The rush in her limbs that was pure adrenaline.

She would win.

That moment that you knew you would win, because you had a team on your shoulders and they were cheering your name, of course you would win, you had to win, for them, for yourself…

_Win, Chiharu. Win_.

In that moment, you were unbeatable.

You were omnipotent, untouchable, _miracle, deity, god._

Nothing could stop you.

This was _tennis_. Tasting the saltiness of the sweat dripping down your face, running when you couldn't feel your legs, breathing when your lungs felt like they were going to collapse. You played like everything was on the line and like you had nothing to lose. So painful, but so wonderful at the same time. And you couldn't stop, because this was what you lived for, this was what you loved more than anything and what you were meant to do.

It was over in a second. They couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't do anything. All they could do was watch. Both players on the court saw the last ball, sailing in a perfect arc, falling, falling, falling…

When the referee announced the game and match to Hyotei, Chiharu fell to her knees and cried.

**~x~**

End Chapter Twenty-Seven.

**I. AM. NEVER. WRITING. TENNIS. AGAIN.**

**EVER.**

(that is a lie.)

Yes, Seigaku lost. It happens. Well, not in actual PoT, but IN MY WORLD IT DOES.

There's been so much tennis lately that I'm SO HAPPY the next chapter will be Valentine's Day! One couple will get together. If you can accurately guess WHICH couple, you get a dedication. Better yet, tell me what you want to see! Maybe I'll actually update on the actual holiday for once.

The chapter after that might be more lifestyle stuff, and then WHITE DAY WHOOOO!

So, I know that a lot of people have left the PoT fandom. NPoT is pretty bad, and honestly the quality of PoT fanfiction has gone way downhill. I hope that those of you who are still here will leave me a review to let me know that you're still around. I just might cry if all my readers have left the fandom.

I am also well aware that my first few chapters are horrible. I am considering rewriting them, but I think I owe it to you guys to try to finish it first. Don't you HATE it when authors take down a story to do a rewrite?

Also, Rikkai will be introduced soon, mostly because my Rikkai OCs going to be pretty damn awesome and I love the Rikkai boys. On that note, **I wrote a MaruiOC siblingship** featuring Kimiko! Please R&R, it's called Imprint. There's also one about Rikkai called** For Rikkai, for Yukimura**, where my Rikkai OC captain makes her debut. She's an oddball.

**thesadisttensaifuji** I wrote a birthday fic for me a while ago called In Retrospect. It features Tezuka and Izumi's relationship, and it is BEAUTIFUL. For you hardcore FujiIzumi fans, it's not romance so don't worry. Please go read it.

I forgot to do the fun facts thing last time! **Fun facts about Marui Kimiko:**

_Her favorite subject is Home Economics but her best subject (surprisingly) is Math._

_She loves horror movies._

_Her favorite music genre is old school gangster rap. Aiko finds it amusing when she tries to sing along._

_She sleeps in a tshirt with a Mario mushroom printed on front_

_She has seven cavities. Bunta has nine. He still beats her at everything._

ONE MORE THING.

**Sneak peak for the next chapter!**

"So, someone _confessed_ to you and you did _what?!_"

"I did the first thing I thought of!" She buried her head into her hands. "I laughed."


End file.
